


Book III: Avi's Children

by Draganonymous



Series: Avi's Angel [3]
Category: Pentatonix
Genre: Angst and Feels, Multi, No Smut, Pre-Relationship, baby acquisition, dragon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2018-09-08 02:23:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 38,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8826688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draganonymous/pseuds/Draganonymous
Summary: The continuing adventures of Avi Kaplan, his dragon, and their child(ren)





	1. Humanity 101

Avi Kaplan spent a wonderful night with his girlfriend. She hadn't seen him in two months--since before Christmas--so they had a lot of catching up to do. They cuddled in front of the television for a while, after she met his dragoness. He felt confident that there would be no conflict between the pretty brunette and the Guardian with amnesia.  
   He was so confident that he let his girlfriend lead him into the bedroom last night. Angel stayed in the living room with their daughter, thoroughly disinterested in his private life.  
   Two months apart made them enthusiastic and clingy. He was in good shape, but even he fell asleep after a while. He was happy when he woke hours later, and her warm body was still beside him. He held her tightly, kissed her long neck.  
   “You're still here,” he mumbled into her spicy-sweet skin. She rolled over and returned his embrace.  
   All through the night, she stayed by his side. No matter how many times he reached for her, she responded. He hadn't been this happy since… well, since the day Angel hatched.  
   In the morning, the bed was a tangled mess. Limbs and blankets intertwined in a glorious tumble. He yawned and stretched, as best he could. One of his legs was trapped between her thighs, and something heavy pinned his right arm under the pillow. One of her arms was flung over his head.  
   She moved her arm, and whatever was holding his arm down. His eyes cracked open, enough to see that it wasn't an arm after all.  
   It was a very long, very green neck. The heavy weight was in fact the verdant skull of his Bonded dragoness.  
   “Angel?” he croaked.  
   “So you say,” she agreed.  
   “I thought you were… Where's my girlfriend?”  
   She stared down at him impassively. “She left last night.”  
   He stared up at her with horror as realization sank in.  
   “You thought I was your mate? Do you always have such restless nights with her?” She cocked her head curiously.  
   He made a strangled sound that was part laugh, part sob. He flailed madly, in an effort to disentangle their limbs.  
   Angel helped him, but that sort of made it worse. When he was free, he would have fallen out of bed in his haste, but she was there to catch him. She was nothing if not a diligent dragon.  
   “You need a bath,” he gasped, panting with the effort to escape.  
   She shrugged sinuously. “As you wish.”  
   She didn't seem to see what the problem was, which only proved to him how different this dragon was from _his_ Angel. She tried to assist him with dressing, as if he were a toddler. He didn't want her to touch him. He couldn't even _look_ at her.  
   He led her into the back yard and turned the hose on full blast. He wasn't sure how to wash… _there_ , but he was darned well going to _try!_ The worst part was, she _helped_ him! _His_ Angel didn't even like acknowledging that she _had_ lady parts, but _this_ Angel blithely lifted her tail for him. He may as well have been washing her paws, for all she cared.  
   He jammed his thumb in the end of the hose and shot a stream of water into the conical vent until the water came out clear. It sickened him to see the foam that preceded it.  
  _How did I not know it was her?_ he berated himself. _Why didn't she_ stop _me? How could this happen?!_  
   When she was dry, and the equines were fed, he tugged her into his bedroom. She scooped up their child and lay on the bed, calm as you please, to feed her.  
   “I don't… Why…” he began, incoherent with self-loathing. Then he blurted “I thought you were _her_. If I'd known it was you, I wouldn't have… I don't have sex with dragons.”  
   Angel looked pointedly at the tiny child suckling at her teat. She looked back at him. “You must have done, at some point.”  
   He scrubbed his face with both hands. He couldn't explain it to her without possibly triggering another seizure. What could he say to combat the physical evidence?  
   “It is no hardship to ease your need,” she said with maddening calm. “It causes no discomfort. Indeed, had you not informed me, I would not have known it occurred.”  
   He ran his hands through hair already mussed from a fitful night. “That doesn't exactly do my ego any favors,” he said without thinking.  
   “I fail to see why. You are no dragon. You do not possess the necessary equipment to make it enjoyable.”  
   He covered his face and dropped to the floor. “This can't be happening,” he groaned.  
   “I am certain that a human mate would have been impressed,” she said loyally. “They are more fragile, and do not require a specific pelvic arrangement.”  
   Curious despite himself, he asked what she meant. He didn't understand how bone structure affected sex. He couldn't look her in the eye, so he stayed where he was on the floor.  
   “It matters naught. There is no way for a human to reproduce the results, no pun intended. One would have to repeatedly punch a specific spot during intercourse, which is nearly impossible for one without wings.”  
   He paled and half turned toward her. “ _Punch_?”  
   She nodded sagely. “Without a bony protrusion, it might approximate the sensation.” She shrugged, uncomfortable for the first time since she'd lost her memory. “It would be clumsy and inelegant. I would prefer not to attempt it.”  
   He shuddered at the image she conjured. He couldn't imagine striking her even _once!_ Dragon mating was much more violent than he'd imagined.  
   “I guess we'll never know, since you're the only adult dragon on Earth,” he said sadly. “I don't want to hit you, even if it'd feel… good.”  
   Her eyes glowed faint yellow. “I expect nothing in return for protecting you. If you have a need, I am here to fill it. Nothing more, nothing less.”  
   He shot to his feet and yanked on one horn. “Don't talk like that. You're a living, breathing person, with _feelings_. I won't use you for my own ‘needs’, as you put it. I've got a girlfriend for that. Wait, that came out wrong.” He stopped to think, but he hadn't been awake very long.  
   “If you and I…”  
   “Mate?” she supplied.  
   “Sure. If we do that, it's called cheating. I won't do that to her. Next time you think I need… _that_ … just leave it alone. I can handle it.”  
   She thought for a while. “What if you are not here? You travel to many distant places.”  
   He cut the air with one hand. “Doesn't matter. I'm faithful to one person, and that's that. Last night… Like I said, I thought you were her. It's not happening again, do you hear me?”  
   She nodded slowly. “Humans are monogamous, then.”  
   “Exactly,” he said emphatically.  
   “As you wish.”


	2. No Light in the Hallway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avi tries to learn how to detect pregnancy

While Angel was outside feeding the unicorn and pegasus, Avi called Gwinn.  
   “Can you come out and do an exam on Angel?” he blurted when she picked up.  
   “Why? Did she have another seizure?”  
   “No, um… Isn't it time for a weekly checkup or something?”  
   A weary sigh hissed into his ear. “That's not how it works. There's a two week checkup for her and the baby, six weeks for her, then a three month for the baby. After that, it's six months, then a year. I don't make weekly house calls, no matter who you're friends with. Besides, it's only been two _days_. What's she doing? What specific symptoms do you see?”  
   He couldn't bring himself to tell her the truth. “Well, I've never had a pregnant woman in my life, so I don't know what to look for. I'm the baby of the family, and I don't have any nieces or nephews.”  
   As casually and obliquely as he could, he asked when it was safe for her to have sex.  
   “You said she's the only one of her kind, so I don't see why it matters,” she growled. She was sleep-deprived and cranky, and she didn't know why she was being bothered.  
   “Well, ah… She may have come into contact with a male recently, and I don't want her health compromised.”  
   Another sigh sizzled across the line. “How do you _not_ know? She's sentient. Why don't you just _ask_ her?”  
   He blushed, though she couldn't see it. “She doesn't pry into my sex life, so I give her the same privacy. I'm concerned for her welfare is all, and you're her doctor. Isn't that who you talk to about this stuff?”  
   “Yeah, well you can have her call me if she wants to talk. Otherwise, I'll see you in a month.”  
   The line went dead. He stared at the cell phone like a snake about to bite him. He couldn't ask _Kevin_ to check her!  
   He called Esther.  
   “Hey, I have a question, in the interest of being a good dragon companion.”  
   She laughed. “What do I know about dragons?”  
   “It's a female question, and her doctor won't talk to me.”  
   “Okay,” she said slowly. “What's the question?”  
   He considered his words carefully. His sister knew him too well to skate by. “What should I have seen, when she was pregnant? What are the signs? Did she eat more, drink more, I don't know…”  
   Esther was perceptive enough to see through him, though she leapt to a different conclusion.  
   “Avi, did you forget to use a condom last night? Is that what this is about? Look, I'm sure she takes birth control. It's probably fine.”  
   He pressed the phone to his temple, hard. “Please, just tell me how I'll know for sure if she's pregnant.” He let her think he was talking about his girlfriend. She was more likely to answer him if she didn't know the truth.  
   “Well, at first there's no surefire way to tell. Some women get morning sickness, some don't. There can be breast tenderness, firming of the belly, widening of the hips--but those are tiny changes, hard to spot. She'll eat more, but not much at first. By the time she's ravenous, it's kinda hard not to notice the belly. Oh, but she might be more moody, so that might help. I don't know what else to say, bro.”  
   He was sitting on the couch by the time she finished. She hadn't been sick with Menolly. He could watch her while she nursed, to see if she was more tender, but she rarely showed her discomfort. She was eating enough to feed five babies, so that didn't help either. The only thing he could monitor was her mood, and she was already unpredictable.  
   Belatedly, he thanked his sister.  
   “I don't know why you sound upset. You've always wanted kids.”  
   Quite truthfully, he told her that he wasn't sure she was the right person to start a family with.  
   “Well, it's a bit late to be deciding who you want to have kids with, Avi. You've already got one. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess. I don't know what else to tell you.”  
   He hung up with few answers and no solutions. He walked to the sliding door and watched his dragon for a while. She seemed no different, but it was early.  
  _How long are dragons pregnant?_ he wondered. _She carried Menolly and the eggs for about two months, but she was in the egg for nine months. Does that mean they have an eleven month gestation, or did her time in the egg change the timetable? I'm flying blind here,_ he thought in frustration. He didn't realize he was thinking in dragon terms.  
   He wandered into his room and dropped heavily onto the mattress. Immediately, he got up and tore the sheets off the bed. He hurled them toward the door. He got a new set of sheets, made the bed with loud snaps of fabric, and threw the soiled ones in the washer.  
   When he came back, he glanced at his daughter in her bassinet. It occurred to him, after the fact, that he might have been making too much noise in his agitation.  
   She stared up at him, her tiny brow wrinkled. She radiated concern at him, a wordless query.  
   He picked her up and rocked her awkwardly. “Daddy's not mad at you, sweetness. It's okay. I'm mad at myself. Want me to sing to you?” It was a rhetorical question. Even a telepathic half dragon wouldn't understand the spoken word at two weeks old. She required images directly into her mind, in order to understand the most basic concepts. Her father didn't know how to do that yet.

 “Close your eyes, lay your head down  
Now it's time to sleep  
May you find great adventure  
As you lie and dream  
If you're scared of the darkness  
I will calm your fear  
There's a light in the hallway  
So you know I'm here…”

    He sang to her, as he imagined doing when Scott let him take the lead in “Light in the Hallway”. He didn't know he would be singing it to his own child quite so soon.  
   Angel paused on her way to feed the troll and worg. _So this is why I protect him,_ she thought. _He has a voice of molten gold. It is a worthy task._  
   Unfettered by human memories, she continued on with her duties. She shed not a single tear over lost opportunities, felt no anxiety over a man singing to an infant. She was simply happy that he kept the babe occupied while she fed the others and scavenged for food.  
   When she was ready to feed his daughter, she went into the room. He was sitting on the bed with her, making silly faces. She leapt lightly onto the mattress behind him and waited.  
   Avi put his daughter right up against a teat, closer than he felt comfortable being, but he wanted to see if his dragon was tender. If she was, she didn't show it, which he'd suspected would be the case.  
   “Do, ah… do you need lotion or anything, for um…” he waved at her teats, hoping she understood what he was trying to ask.  
   “Most likely,” she said. “With five younglings tugging at them, I imagine they will be sore if I do not.”  
   He casually rested a hand on her side, but couldn't feel any difference.  
   “Are you hungry?” he asked.  
   “Always,” the dragoness said, in a way that sounded like “obviously!”  
   He got up to make her something to eat, no wiser than before.


	3. Dance of the Sugar Plum Grammy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grammy night!

Avi watched his dragon closely over the next week. Whether they were at home, or out and about, he monitored her mood, hunger, and teat tenderness.  
   He bought some sort of fancy udder cream for her teats, but after the last time, he decided to buy it online. The cashier gave them weird, covert looks when the large bottle of baby oil swiped across the scanner. The teenager couldn't see Angel, but he _could_ see Kevin. Angel found it quite hilarious, but neither male shared her mirth.  
    _Ah, the good old days,_ he thought as he clicked “check out”. _The days when she understood human problems and references…_ On the plus side, she didn't seem to be exhibiting any of the symptoms his sister listed. It was difficult to tell, but he was hopeful. Early or not, he prayed that the absence of change was a good sign.  
   Now, she stood guard while he tried on outfits for the Grammys without a whiff of interest in the proceedings. _His_ Angel would have offered opinions on certain articles of clothing, squealed with pride over his accomplishments. She would have _shared_ the experience. Despite her moodiness, he missed the Angel he met first. This remote… _dragon_... did her duty, and nothing more.  
   This Angel only told him what she thought of the things he tried on when asked. She didn't ask what event it was for. _She takes her job far too seriously,_ he thought. _There's no personal connection anymore. She once said they chose carefully, but this memory loss is making their choice irrelevant. She's a stereotypical dragon, with no evidence of any Bond between us. It feels like she'd be just as happy serving… I don't know, Beyonce?_ He shook his head. _I've been hanging around Scott too much._  
   If the indifference weren't enough, she didn't even speak to him telepathically unless she had to. She didn't seem to _listen,_ either. On one hand, it was nice to have privacy, but on the other hand, it created a gulf between them. She didn't understand humans anymore, and she rarely tried to read his mind to find out what he meant.  
   He didn't know that she was purposely giving him space. He was upset, and she didn't know how to help. She continued to hold him, now properly clothed in pajamas, throughout the long nights; but during the day, she was at a loss. She was trying a hands off approach while he was conscious. He behaved oddly toward her, and rather than pry into his thoughts, she stepped back to let him work through it on his own. He was an adult, after all.  
   The night of the Grammys, the enthusiasm of the crowd and the other band members; plus the support of other singers, his sister, and Ben Bram, overrode the calm of his dragon. He sang his heart out, proud and awed to share the stage with Stevie Wonder. Not even the serene green weight around his shoulders could dampen the joy of that night.  
   It wasn't until they actually won the award for their arrangement of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” that she realized what the fuss was about. She firmly stated that they'd earned it, though her praise wasn't effusive. It was simply fact, for it could be nothing else.  
   “You sing like angels,” she said.  
   “And she'd know,” Avi joked.  
   The band laughed, caught up in the spirit of the evening. There were afterparties, and press engagements, and red carpet poses throughout the night. They had a blast, and met lots of new people; some famous, some not.  
   Though she said nothing, to avoid revealing her presence, Angel radiated pride, once she knew what the night was about. She didn't know any of the faces around them, but the band clearly did. She didn't ask who the strangers were, even through sign language. It was enough that her imprinted family was impressed. Besides, names would only clutter her memory banks. She preferred to leave room for knowledge she could use.  
   Angel wasn't bothered overmuch by the fact that no one could see her. She draped around her human’s neck, except when she had to feed the baby. Her invisibility made it simpler to slip away and care for Menolly. Because she was so quiet, no one discovered her hiding places. She slept in various nooks and side rooms, with a subtle “look away” field to protect her. She didn't bother her Bonded with the details of it, so he could focus fully on his performances.  
   Gwinn was watching the other four infants, though she couldn't guarantee that the pegasus would drink from a bottle. To be on the safe side, the dragoness ate enough to feed two younglings. There was plenty of her milk in the freezer for the other three.  
   As expected, when they finally came through the door, Gwinn pointed wordlessly at the backyard. Flush with enthusiasm, Avi waved her off and babbled excitedly with Esther, Kevin and a very tired Gwinn.  
   Angel dove through the sliding door so fast that Avi felt bad for keeping her away so long. Her udder must have been full to bursting after only feeding one child all day.  
   But it wasn't the pegasus she shot toward. Unbeknownst to the mortals inside their house, Angel was headed straight for danger. Something big was in the yard with the foals.


	4. A Chimera and a Pixie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel kills a chimera, names the foals, and hints at a secret

Angel sprang into the yard, claws outstretched. She couldn't see the thing with her eyes, but it lit up her Dragon Sense like a beacon of evil. She could See that it was bleeding, yet undeterred. The unicorn colt had blood on his horn, but the foals were backed into a corner.  
   That meant that the creature's back was to the _real_ threat: an angry, protective dragoness with painfully swollen teats.  
   She sank her front talons into its spine and wrenched it away from her adopted young. It landed on its side with her full weight immediately on top of it. She snapped the spine with one savage, efficient twist of her head.  
   Knowing that it would produce more milk, thereby increasing her discomfort, she bolted the remains before the blood could seep into the ground. She had to sanctify the yard after the last corpse sullied it. No grass would grow there until she purified the soil. She didn't want to go through _that_ tedium again!  
   She washed her muzzle and claws before attempting to approach the foals. She'd learned her lesson the last time. The unicorn was surprisingly affectionate once she was clean. The pegasus was wary, but she did eventually drink her fill.  
   When the colt saw her swollen udders, he helped his adopted sister drain what he could without making himself sick. _:It's the least I can do,:_ he said. _:You saved us again._  
 _:I did try to hold it off, but it was canny.:_  
   Angel nuzzled his flank. _:You did well, little warrior. I think you have earned a name this night. What will it be? Ares? Thor? Nay, perhaps something more cunning. What of Aragorn?:_  
   The colt thought for a while. He saw the image of the man in his mind, and there was a certain nobility in his bearing.  
  _:Yes, I like that. I wish I had armor like his.:_  
   She laughed. _:’Tis called barding for our kind, and it is possible to craft some. I cannot tell you how to acquire it, but ‘tis possible.:_  
   Little Aragorn walked with new pride, now that he had a name. A name given by a dragon was rarer than a hundred of his kind.  
  _:I suppose we ought to name her as well, though I do not know if she will respond to any we choose. What say you?:_  
   A dragon wanted to know what _he_ thought? His narrow chest puffed out while he pondered.  
  _:Since she's so shy, why not Fairy?:_  
   Angel mulled it over. _:I wish I knew fairy names.:_  
   Aragorn whinnied. _:She won't understand either way. I don't know why it matters.:_  
 _:The only fey name I know offhand is Moonling, but she was a pixie. The filly is not mischievous enough for such a thing.:_  
   He nickered thoughtfully. _:But she does look like a stray bit of moonlight. Perhaps Moonling is just the name for her.:_  
   Angel chuckled where the colt couldn't hear. She wanted to name the filly Moonling from the start, but it was good for his self-confidence if he thought it was his idea. She pretended to cogitate, looking under her belly at the filly and cocking her head side to side.  
  _:You know, you might just have a point. In this light, she does look like a fey Moonling. So it shall be,:_ she decreed formally.  
   When the foals were full, she returned to a house full of subdued gaiety. She picked up the worg pup and baby troll, found a quiet spot to see what they would drink. She still wasn't entirely comfortable.  
   “I _knew_ those two were trouble!”  
   Angel's head snapped up. “What do you mean? They have done nothing wrong.”  
   Esther pointed to her keel, where a telltale patch of gore smeared her emerald scales.  
   “Ah, it appears I missed a spot. It is a wonder that Aragorn did not point it out.”  
   She blinked. “Who?”  
   “Ah yes, he is newly named. I refer to the unicorn foal who fended off the chimera.”  
   Esther blanched. “Ch...chimera? There was a _chimera_ in the backyard?!”  
   Angel nodded. “Fear not, we dispatched it and disposed of the body. I regret that you had to see this. The infants seem to be finished, so I shall adjourn to the shower.”  
   She deposited the puppy and baby in the playpen and went to the bathroom before Esther could form a coherent comment.  
   Avi came in a few minutes later.  
   “Did I hear Esther right? She says there was a chimera in our backyard.”  
   “Yes. Perhaps because the fearsome dragon was away, it thought it could eat the foals and be gone before I returned. It did not count on Aragorn fighting back.”  
   He chuckled. “So that's true, too? You named him after my favorite Lord of the Rings character?”  
   She poked her head out of the shower. “Is that who he is? There was a name, face, and general impression in my mind, but I did not know where I got it from.” She shrugged in her unique way, and went back to scrubbing her scales.  
   It was reassuring that some things hadn't been lost, but also faintly alarming that she'd remembered something. He didn't know how to feel about that.  
   “Did you happen to name the pegasus, by chance?” he asked, trying not to think overmuch.  
   “Since you boys neglected to do so, I let Aragorn name her. He chose Moonling. She looks like a ‘stray bit of moonlight’, as he says, so it fit.”  
   He smiled. “‘Stray bit of moonlight’? I like that. By the way, do you need a second pair of eyes in there?”  
   She readily accepted his offer of assistance. She didn't want anyone else mistaking chimera blood for her own. He found a gobbet of what she declared spinal cord, in the crease of one hind leg.  
   “Do I want to know how spinal cord got wedged in your undercarriage?” he asked.  
   “Exactly how you'd expect it would,” she said calmly. “I attacked from above.”  
   He dropped the shredded bit of flesh down the toilet and flushed. “Of course. How silly of me,” he said, torn between nausea and admiration for her prowess.  
   When they came out of the bathroom, Esther was waiting. “Do I have to worry about evil _things_ lurking in my brother's yard, _every_ time you leave the house?”  
   Angel cocked her head. “Your brother is safe with me, fear not. It is the foals who are at risk. I could deter them, but I doubt you would like the method.”  
   Her brow wrinkled. Gwinn whispered that typically, predators would mark their territory to ward off competition.  
   The dragoness nodded. “Doing so would cause every pet in a mile radius to quiver in fear. There is good reason for my use of the human toilet.”  
   Esther threw her hands up. “Well, I don't know what else to do. You seem to be a magnet for supernatural creatures. We never had these problems until _you_ came along!”  
   “I beg to differ, young lady. The only difference between then and now is, you can see what is protecting you. Did you think it luck that your plane landed safely, despite having engine trouble?”  
   The tidbit about their plane shouldn't have been a surprise, since it was right before she appeared in his bedroom. Avi didn't want her remembering her time as his Guardian Angel, though. He was afraid it would lead to another flashback.  
   “Okay, you've made your point. It's just as dangerous, but we can see the good and the bad. I'm sorry Esther, but I prefer things as they are. I wasn't even allowed to remember the things that happened before she came along. Did you know I sang for _fairies?_ ”  
   Angel tapped his arm. “Pixies,” she corrected.  
   “What? How do you know?”  
   She waved a paw in the air, in the shape of wings. “Fairies have butterfly wings, and tend to keep to themselves. Pixies, like your friend, have dragonfly wings, and a love of mischief. Both love music.”  
   The siblings exchanged a Look.  
   “We know a pixie?” Esther asked.  
   “Aye, you do. However, if he has not shown his true nature, I will not betray him.”  
   She refused to be swayed, no matter what they said, which left them wondering what male friend of theirs was a pixie. She said they loved music and mischief, and it had to be someone she'd met.  
   It hit them both at the same time:  
   “ _Mitch!_ ”


	5. Kaplan Wreck

After the battle, Avi doubled his vigilance. If she was pregnant during that fight, who knew what the repercussions would be? He completely forgot that she'd routinely slain things while she was pregnant with Menolly. Knowing there was a chance she carried his children made him overprotective.  
   That isn't to say that she allowed him to do any more or less than he did for her in the past. If he hovered too much, she told him in no uncertain terms that she was an adult dragon. She didn't need his help, she merely permitted it.  
   When Angel still didn't show any sign of being pregnant, and almost two more weeks had passed, he began to relax his vigil.  
   As for Mitch, neither Kaplan sibling knew how to ask him if he was a pixie in disguise. They watched him covertly, but he was no different than he was before. They didn't want to hurt his feelings either way, so in the end, they opted to keep his secret. Both wondered if Scott knew, but they couldn't ask him, either. If he didn't know, it would be a shock, and if he did know, he'd want to know how they found out.  
   Then the car in front of Avi and Mike Kaplan flipped over. Neither Avi nor his father saw what happened, but Angel did.  
   “ _Pull over! Now!_ ”  
   Avi wrenched the wheel and stomped on the brakes. Angel dove _through_ the window, though it was rolled up, and grew to Reaper size.  
   “Dad, stay here. I'm going to check on the people in that car.” He didn't think his father would actually stay put, but he had to try. He didn't know why his dragon was in combat form, but he wanted his father safely out of the way.  
   When he got there, an adult couple had managed to crawl out of the wreckage. The woman was trying to pry open the rear passenger door. He could barely see, through the cracked window, that a little girl was trapped inside.  
   Being whole and healthy, he applied his strength to the warped door. The crumpled frame of the wreckage impeded his efforts.  
   “I can't get the door open!” he shouted to Angel. His dad came to help, but even together, they couldn't bend metal.  
   Suddenly, the car slid toward them with a loud _crunch!_ He saw great, green wings over the hood of the car, which vanished almost immediately. Multiple bodies struck the pavement on the other side of their meager shelter. Not much could be seen through the smoke, but the huddled humans heard sickening thuds, and the snapping of bones. He saw a tail that wasn't hers, at one point. Another set of wings arced over the car briefly, before his dragon whipped the creature away.  
   Blood spurted across the car, but thankfully, the windows were intact on that side. Avi glanced over the terrified people for splatter, but saw none.  
   “What's going on?” they asked.  
   After a few shrugs, they stopped asking him. All he knew was that his Guardian Angel was fighting for their lives. He couldn't tell them that, even though he knew she was going to erase their memories. Nothing he said to the new Angel would sway her from it, and besides, knowing a dragon was out there was just as likely to make them _more_ afraid.  
   There was a sudden, ominous silence, followed by a slow _whuff, whuff, WHUFF!_ Huge green wings swept the smoke from the road. Short bursts of fire burned away the remains of their attackers, and some of the smoke.  
   “Angel, we need help! The door is stuck.”  
  _:If I do not incinerate these corpses immediately, you will have a greater problem,:_ she said. _:Even the breath to speak would be too long away from my task.:_  
    _Well, that explains it,_ he thought. She never bespoke him without cause. Making sure the enemy was dead fell squarely into _that_ category! And when did she get fire breath?  
   He tried the door again, but the mangled wreck was more twisted than before. The window was busted, but the glass wouldn't do them anyone favors.  
   Angel was still busy, so he yanked his jacket off and draped it over the jagged glass. He had a little lip of leather to kneel on, but not much. His lean torso easily fit through the window, one long arm just reached the seat belt. The girl was unconscious, so it was up to him to unfasten the buckle.  
   Of course, the blasted thing was jammed.  
   Avi nabbed a large glass shard and sawed at the belt itself. Fortunately, she was in the middle, so he only had to cut through one restraint.  
   When she was free, she sagged into his arms. He dropped the shard and grappled with her limp body to get a stable hold, and keep her from hitting her head on the roof. He lifted and scooted her toward the window, mindful of the shattered glass.  
   “Okay, this might not feel too good, but I promise it'll be quick.” The little girl couldn't hear him, but her parents could.  
   He tipped her over his shoulder and backed out of the car, earning many more cuts on his palms as he bore her weight on his back and arm. He ducked as low as he could on his way out the window, to spare her the same cuts he incurred.  
   Once they were free of the wreck, her parents swept the girl into their arms. He stood slowly, feeling every scrape and bruise on his upper body. Even his knees hurt from kneeling on broken glass and metal. He swiped as much debris from his body as he could, helped by a very impressed elder Kaplan.  
   “I knew we raised you right. Good job, son.”  
   He started to clap him on the back, but a large piece of glass was embedded in his scapula.  
   “And now we call 911,” he said firmly.  
   “There is no need. I am here.”  
   Avi sighed gratefully. “Thank God. I'm a bit banged up, but I'll be fine. Their daughter is unconscious.”  
   Mike stared at the huge green-purple creature with fear, and a healthy dose of respect for its power.  
   “You might want to be an Angel, sweetness. You're scaring them.” He didn't notice the endearment, but his father did.  
   Angel shrank to a more manageable stature before approaching. She would have obeyed his request to tend the girl first, but she spied the shard in his shoulderblade.  
   “I will tend you first, as I am Bound.” _:You forget, I feel your pain.:_  
   He didn't feel that specific pain. His body was overloaded with discomforts. When she gently removed the fragment, however, he felt it quite keenly. She smoothed her paw over the wound, a green glow limning his head in a halo. He relaxed into her palm as the pain receded.  
   “Okay, now her. That's the worst of it. G’won, see what you can do.” He waved her toward the child weakly, then sat in the grass on the side of the road. He wouldn't sit in their car until he was sure he wouldn't bleed on the seat.  
   “Your palm is bleeding rather badly,” she objected.  
   “I'll be fine. She might not.”  
   Angel hesitated, but he seemed stable. The girl was not. With a rumble of disquiet, she turned to her other patient. The parents did not seem keen on letting her Heal the girl, but her Bonded managed to convince them.  
   “You may hold her while I examine her, if it assures you of my noble intent,” she added.  
   They didn't exactly give their permission, but they did stop shielding her body with theirs.  
   She sat next to them and placed two talons on the girl's forehead. The green glow returned to her pupilless orbs. “Minor internal trauma. Slight concussion. Easily treatable,” she diagnosed. “Do you wish me to repair the damage, or would you prefer modern medicine?”  
   “Uh, no offense, but we'd rather have a doctor treat her,” the father said, afraid of angering this creature that could probably fling cars if it chose.  
   “As you wish.”  
   Quick as lightning, she tapped both parents’ foreheads, and followed their slump to the ground with two talons on each. They dropped to the ground in a controlled fall, sound asleep.  
   “What did you do?!”  
   Avi held his father back. “Dad, it's fine! She just erased their memories. Call 911. _Dad!_ Call 911, _now_. She said the girl has a concussion. Who knows what injuries her parents suffered?”  
   “Minor injuries all around. The male sustained a broken finger, which I took the liberty of repairing. Everything else can wait for human intervention.”  
   “See? She helped. Now, make the call so we can get out of here.”  
   Mike stared at his son. “I'm not leaving these people on the side of the road, and I'm surprised that _you_ would.”  
   Avi sighed. “I didn't say we'd abandon them, just move far enough away that they won't see us, and maybe remember what _really_ happened. Plus, Angel’s got to patch _me_ up.” He looked pointedly at the gash in his palm, from cutting the girl free.  
   “Although I don't suppose you could move the car out of the road, could you?”  
   Angel became Reaper, and tugged the twisted metal off to the edge. She moved it away from the sleeping family, but close enough to be believable.  
   Then she whisked down to a Whisper and followed him to the car. His jacket was a lost cause, so when the shrapnel was removed, he sat on it to move their own car a safe distance away. The elder Kaplan placed the call, making sure the operator knew that his son pulled the girl out of the wreckage.  
   While they waited for rescue, Angel Healed the multitude of cuts, scrapes, and abrasions of her Bonded. He absently wiped the blood from the steering wheel. That glass really did a number on his hands. There was blood smeared everywhere, despite his attempts to bind the deeper wound with a corner of his shirt.  
   “I believe you owe me an explanation,” Mike said.


	6. A Different Sort of Kaplan Wreck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avi has to answer for a few things

“I know, I should've told you and Mom about Angel, but I got her on Christmas. Nobody would think their present was any good, compared to a _dragon!_ ”  
   “Oh, since Christmas? What stopped you from telling us the past three months, hmm?” His father crossed his arms in traditional Disappointed Dad Pose.  
   Avi waved a hand weakly. “Dragons are supposed to be kept secret. They might take her away if word got out, and she's my Guardian.”  
   The arms remained crossed. “You think your mother or I would go running to the press? They'd think we were mad. I'm not entirely sure I haven't gone mad, to be honest.”  
   Avi was about to answer when the phone rang.  
   “Hey, what's up?” he asked Esther. “She's what? I can't hear you over the crying. Wait, _who's_ crying? She _never_ cries--yeah, got it. The ambulance is pulling up anyway, so--no, not for us. I'll explain when we get there.”  
   He turned to his dad. “I'm sorry, but there's an emergency at home. We can talk about this later, but I've got to drop you off. Later, though, okay?” He pulled out and turned the car toward his parents’ house, but Mike put a hand over his.  
   “If there's an emergency, you take us straight there. I don't want something bad to happen because you had to worry about me.”  
    _:He was bound to find out eventually,:_ Angel said with maddening logic. _:It may as well be now. If he finds out you lied twice…:_  
 _:Fine, but he's not going to be happy.:_  
 _:I could always erase his memory,:_ she pointed out.  
  _:The older she gets, the more upset they'll be that we didn't tell them. I've put it off too long as it is.:_  
   He drove, very aware that his father was staring at the creature coiled around his neck. The silence of disappointment grew too heavy, so he turned the radio on.  
   His dad turned it off.  
  _The silent treatment. Great,_ he thought.  
   Angel became more anxious the closer they got, and he couldn't blame her. They both felt their daughter's distress, but she probably felt it more. She was more attuned to it, and she carried Menolly inside her body.  
   She was out of the car before it stopped. Mike’s jaw sagged when she darted through the closed window, then the closed door.  
   “Could you pinch me?”  
   “Sorry dad, the baby needs us,” he said on his way out of the car.  
   “The _what?_ ”  
   Avi was gone, driven by the primal fear that beat through his veins. Even though it wasn't his own fear, his body reacted to it.  
   “I'm sorry, I didn't want to bother you. She woke up, and I guess she knew neither of you were nearby, so she freaked out. I tried everything. She wouldn't take the bottle, and walking--oh, hi dad. I didn't know you were coming.”  
   By the time Mike Kaplan entered the house, holding the car keys that his son had forgotten in his haste, the dragon was nursing a baby on the floor.  
   “Just when I thought my day couldn't get any weirder,” he said dazedly. “A dragon with a human baby.”  
   Avi closed the door behind his dad and led him closer. “If it helps, she's only half human. The other half is dragon.”  
   Mike stared at his son with dawning suspicion. “That depends on who the human half is.”  
   Esther throttled a chuckle, but it still broke free.  
   “That's the real reason you didn't tell us, isn't it?” he asked, eyes narrowed.  
   “No, no, she was born a month ago. Honestly, I didn't know how to tell you guys I had a dragon. Would you have believed me?”  
   “A month ago, huh? So your dragon was two months old when she had a _baby?_ ” He shook his head. “I don't know which I find harder to believe, son.”  
   “I know not if it helps, but I was created with embryos already implanted.”  
   “She can't lie, Dad.”  
   Avi winced. He knew Esther meant well, but he also knew what their father's next question would be.  
   “No lies, eh? Okay, dragon--”  
   “Angel, Dad. She has a name.”  
   “He knows my name, Bonded. You spoke it in his presence. He is creating distance. Am I correct, sir?”  
   Mike blinked. He had trouble seeing her as his children did: a human in dragon form. All he saw was the dragon she was now. It was strange for him, hearing human sentiment from a beast.  
   “Angel it is, then,” he said with grudging respect. He'd seen her battle horrible things, or at least he'd _heard_ it. He saw her heal the jagged wounds his son heroically earned. Now she lay, calm as you please, nursing a human child.  
   “Since you can't lie, tell me this: whose child is that? Besides yours, I mean.”  
   It was easier telling his girlfriend about Menolly. She wasn't family. When Angel said what Mike already guessed, he could feel the weight of his gaze like a beam of white-hot light. He couldn't look his father in the eye.  
   “I don't know what to say right now. Under normal circumstances, I would insist that you marry the mother of your child, but--”  
   “Children,” Angel corrected.  
   “Not helping,” Avi and Esther snapped.  
   Mike looked from one sibling to the other. “There's more than one?” he asked slowly.  
   “Ah, it seems Gabriel has seen fit to return them,” Angel said, throwing the room into chaos. She was the only one who could see the archangel, but the younger Kaplans _could_ see the baby dragons that seemed to explode from nowhere.  
   “Avriel Benjamin Kaplan, what _have_ you been up to?”


	7. Kaplan Chaos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We're "introduced" to the hatchlings.

Angel lay still while she nursed Menolly, but her gaze followed each of her other children in turn. She kept Gabriel in her peripheral, however. She remembered his nasty habit of disappearing when needed, if not the specifics.  
   Without taking her eyes off of a blue hatchling, she asked _:I gather their training is completed.:  
_ _:As far as angels can train dragons, yes,:_ Gabriel replied.  
 _:What can they do, and what do they know?:  
_ _:They know the etiquette and rules of living on Earth--again, as much as angels can teach. They know what they are, and are not capable of. As for combat, we have done what we can to equip them. The rest is up to you, as you are more equipped to handle the fine points.:_ He hadn't forgotten that she didn't remember being human, but she would still know more than any angel about interactions with humans. There was only so much that a bipedal creature with four or more sets of wings could teach something much smaller, with four legs and two wings. She was uniquely equipped to turn her children into ideal Guardians, and he told her as much.  
 _:As you wish,:_ she said with draconic stoicism. Unlike her human self, she didn't balk or quail. She was a hardened warrior who would do what was necessary, because she could.  
   This should have heartened her friend, but it made Gabriel vaguely uneasy. He couldn't pinpoint why, it just did.  
   Angel let out a piercing whistle, and the seemingly chaotic hatchlings landed in front of her in perfect formation. She knew that the appearance of chaos was due to the number of them in a relatively small space, but in fact, they'd been doing a very ordered surveillance sweep of the premises.  
   "Do you have names?" She asked. It wasn't the warm, maternal query of her former self. It was a request for necessary information.  
   "No, mum, we are to be named by our Bonded, as you were," a green and blue hatchling replied.  
   "Wait, who are you Bonding _to?_ " their father asked. He remembered the pain of Bonding vividly, and he didn't want anyone he knew to go through _that!_  
   "We are here to protect the band, father, sir!" a bright red hatchling barked in a military fashion.  
   Avi flushed when it called him "father" in front of his own dad. He couldn't look him in the face. Instead, he examined his children.  
   They were all roughly the same size, though he doubted they were as young as they'd have to be, even if they hatched the day after they were taken to Heaven. Angel said time worked differently up there, so they could be several months old, or the equivalent.  
   One of... his children... was crimson, with purple accents and a yellow belly. When it saluted, he saw that the entire underside of its body was yellow. It would probably deepen to a gold, knowing dragons as he thought he did. The tail had a bony forked projection at the end, and it had inherited its mother's high frill. He thought it sounded male, but as young as they were, there wasn't really any way to know.  
   Another child of... his... was blue, which was a color the remaining four shared, but it was primarily blue. Its frills were fuschia, and the mottling on its scales was a deeper blue. She(?) had three tiny horns on her head, and a magenta fan on the end of her tail. She had horns down her neck, unlike her mother, but she had inherited the twin horns on her chin from Angel. Her earflaps were much broader and ornate than her mother's, giving her a slightly canine appearance. She had "heel" and "elbow" spikes, and dew claws. She was also the only hatchling to inherit her mother's wing claw. Like her siblings, she had a shorter body than their mother, but that may have been due to their youth.  
   The two green hatchlings looked quite similar. Both were primarily green, and both had backswept horns. The green and blue spotted one had upward curving horns and a chin horn, where the green and brown one had downward pointing horns and two tendrils trailing from its chin. The green and blue was solid all around its quadrupedal body, with lavender on the inside of its wings. The green and brown had a blue belly and bipedal body. Its wings were lavender on the bottom, and blue on top. The green and brown had a frill, the green and blue did not. Their earflaps and tails were slightly different. He wasn't sure he'd be able to tell those two apart consistently.  
   The last hatchling was painted with broad patches of blue and green, unlike the lacy spots of its siblings. It had a shorter muzzle than its siblings, as well. It was bipedal, with two silver, backswept horns that pointed upward. He might be able to tell it apart from the other two, just by the noticeable difference in coloration.  
   "So, these five dragons are yours too, hmm?" his dad asked, breaking into his thoughts. Angel had been issuing orders to their children, so Mike walked up next to him to be heard.  
   "Yeah," he said slowly. "It's complicated."


	8. It Turns Out Fine

Avi jerked his head toward the kitchen, where they could talk in relative quiet. He fiddled with things to make tea while he gathered his thoughts. Mike allowed it. He could see that his son was struggling with something, and it wasn't the dragons in the living room. Maybe it included them, but this was different.  
   If he'd been embarrassed about keeping a secret, he would behave differently. No, something was bothering him. He moved alongside his son, offering mute support for whatever problem weighed on those narrow shoulders so heavily.  
   "She used to be human, you know. That's important..." Avi glanced up, but his mind wandered again before picking up the thread of his thoughts. Pain flickered in the hazel depths, which was reflected in the heart of the man who raised him.  
   Avi stared at a box of tea bags. He told the packets of herbs what they'd told Esther: she'd been a fan before she went into a coma, so she visited him. He wasn't sure his father would understand astral projections, but that's basically what Angel was, when they met. Sure, she was held together by an angel, but if he told his dad that, knowing what they'd done...  
   "That was the last time I saw her as a human--or human-shaped, I guess." His eyes remained fixed on the box, unable to meet his father's perceptive gaze. "Then I was knocked unconscious and put in bed, I don't know by who or what." He skirted the truth, because he was fairly certain that an angel put him to bed, but it had never been confirmed. "I woke up alone, for the first time in about three months. When I couldn't find her, I panicked."  
   Here, he did glance up. If he but knew it, his deep-set eyes held the same pain that Angel's did, when she still had her memories.  
   "Then there was the knock at the door. The... people who made her into a dragon delivered her egg, with a waiver, signed in blood. I was not to tell anyone but the band and Esther."  
   Mike suppressed his shock that there was a blood contract between his son and unknown persons, though it was difficult.  
   Avi's head dropped to his chest. He mumbled "So we didn't."  
   Mike clapped a hand on his son's shoulder. "I'll have a talk with Esther later. Why don't you tell me what's _really_ going on here. What is this big _thing_ that's sitting where my hand is now?"  
   Avriel Benjamin Kaplan stared up at his dad without comprehension. He'd just told his dad all of that, and he wasn't _mad?_ He didn't think he was crazy, or depraved, or any of the other things he'd feared he would think?  
   Angel's voice drifted round the corner, teaching their children how to interact with humans, and tears stung his eyes. It lacked the empathy that he'd grown to depend on, even when she had Gabriel editing her every word. She sounded like a talking encyclopedia!  
   "She's not right in the head, is she, son?"  
   His head snapped up. "You make it sound like she's handicapped or something!" Then he stopped and thought about what he'd just said.   
   "Actually, in a way she is..."  
   He met his father's eyes squarely, for the first time, his own shimmering with unshed tears. "She's emotionally handicapped, because she can't..." His voice broke, his head twisted sideways, and a few tears splashed on his dad's hand.  
   "She can't remember her human self," he choked out. "She had a flashback to when they made her--" Here, a shudder shook his wiry frame as he, too, remembered it. "She had a seizure, hit her head, and..." A single sob broke free, but he throttled it down to finish his heart-wrenching tale.   
   "And the Angel I knew... she died. Now, I'm left with a box standard _dragon_ who only protects me out of _habit_. She doesn't talk to me unless she thinks she needs to. There's no encouragement, no _warmth!_ " His mind drifted to the fact that when they'd met, she didn't have any physical warmth unless _he_ needed it, and he dropped on his heels in one defeated slump.  
   Squatting on the balls of his feet, fists over his head to ward off the avalanche of emotions he'd been avoiding for weeks, he whimpered. Not out of fear, but the need to shield his children from any backlash his misery might wreak. He didn't know _how_  to close his mind off from them, so he squeezed his eyes tightly shut and focused on shoving everything inward, instead of outward.  
   Until Mike pulled him off-balance, into his embrace.  
   The tidal wave swept him up, dashed him against the rock that was his father, as repressed reactions flooded his system. He sobbed, curled in the fetal position, right there on the kitchen floor, while his father held him tight.  
   It was a very long time before he realized two things: First, Esther was there with them, rubbing his back. Second, his daughter was beginning to fret in the back of his mind. She didn't understand why _he_ was so sad, and it was making _her_ sad.  
   When he Felt her distress, it startled him out of his own. _She's nursing. She's with her_ mother. _She doesn't notice_ anything  _when she's with her mother!_ he thought with surprise.  
   That was when it hit him: He wasn't the only one suffering. Not only wasn't Angel soothing his frazzled nerves, or silently fangirling at him when she thought he didn't notice, but she wasn't bonding with their daughter, either. She was just... a source of food, now.  
   His hands unclenched. He stood, gently disentangling their supportive arms, dodging inquiring looks, and went to fetch his daughter.  
   Angel hadn't even _noticed!_ She was so focused on teaching dragons how to interact with humans that she'd neglected the one in direct physical contact with her!  
   Menolly lay there, watery eyed, gazing blearily around the room. Her eyes couldn't focus very far away yet, so it took him a bit to realize that she'd been looking for _him_. When she saw her daddy, her chubby arms flailed in his general direction. He swept her into his arms with a hard look at her mother that went unnoticed, and stalked out of the room.  
   He didn't go back into the kitchen, either. He went to his bedroom, plopped on the bed, and generally made a fool of himself over the baby. He made silly faces, smoothed her hair, murmured vague soothing words. He apologized for upsetting her, but he wasn't sure he meant what he said. He'd needed that release for a long time, though he couldn't have said how long. He'd been so busy worrying about Angel's amnesia that he'd forgotten his own self care.


	9. Mike and Menolly

Mike leaned against the doorframe, watching his son with the baby. Whatever else was going on in his life, he could rest assured that his granddaughter wouldn't be neglected.  
  _His granddaughter...  
_    "All right, you've had your fun. Let me see this grandbaby of mine," he gently chided.  
   Avi looked up, saw nothing but love. "Well," he said cautiously, "it's sort of up to her. She's, ah... not precisely human."  
   Mike ignored the blush that rose above his son's bushy beard. "You said her mom's the dragon, son. I gathered she was more than she appeared."  
   Avi cleared his throat. "She can... I don't know how it works, but she tells you how she feels, inside your head. It can be a bit unsettling," he warned.  
   Mike sat on the bed next to them, trying not to show how alien the concept was. Avi tried to tell his daughter who he was, but he wasn't sure she'd get the concept.  
  _:Hey punkin? This is Daddy's daddy. That makes him your grandpa. Want him to hold you for a bit?:_ He pictured his dad holding her and sent it to her, hoping the point got across--heck, he hoped he was even projecting where he thought he was! He still didn't quite know how telepathy worked. He sent her a picture of his parents hugging him, then hugging her, and hoped she understood.  
   Her tiny brow furrowed as she looked seriously at the older man. She could see some of the same lines in his face as her father's, but he was new. New made her nervous. All the same, she could tell her father wanted her to like this man.  
   She held her tiny arms out toward him imperiously. She wanted to get a feel for him, and right now, she could only do that by touch.  
   Avi laughed. "That's how she tells us she wants to go somewhere. She just _leans_."  
   Mike pointed out something no one had noticed before. "She does, but not enough to fall out of your arms. When you kids would lean toward somebody, we had a hard time keeping hold of you! That's one smart baby you've got there."  
   Esther chuckled. "Trust a dad to see something we missed."  
   Mike took the baby from his son with expert care. "I've got more experience, that's all. You're looking at your future, you know."  
   Esther snapped a photo of her dad holding her niece.  
   "I heard that, young lady. While we're talking about grandchildren, when are you going to join the club?" He looked up from the baby briefly, to see her hands held up to ward off the question.  
   "I'm focusing on my career right now, you know that. Besides, you've got one now, so there's time, right?" She winked at her little brother.  
   Mike stared at each of his children in turn, with a Look they knew all too well. "And why is it that my unmarried, youngest son gives me a grandchild before my eldest daughter, hmm?"  
   Esther tried for a laugh that fell flat. "I'm your _only_  daughter."  
   Mike looked down his nose at her.  
   "I told you, career first."  
   Mike turned his eagle gaze on his youngest next. "As I said, under _normal_  circumstances, I would suggest you marry this darling girl's mother. I don't know what to do with you, son. How can we introduce her to the family?"  
   Avi told his dad what they'd told the hospital, but it didn't lessen the sharpness of his scrutiny.  
   "Is there any chance that your lady will return to a human form?"  
   His head snapped up. "If you knew _how_ they made her into a dragon, you'd know there's no going back. Why would you even ask that? I don't understand what difference that would make."  
   Mike sat straighter, in his "teacher pose". Menolly patted his arm fondly. She liked him, it seemed. "If I tell them what you told the hospital, and she _does_  become human again, your entire family will think that she abandoned her child."  
   Avi's head thudded against the wall behind him as he slumped back. He hadn't thought of that. They couldn't tell their family the truth, either. Mike asked him for it, anyway.  
   "What _really_  happened?"  
   Lost in memory, he told his father everything he knew, having forgotten about Gabriel, in the face of his father's logic.  
   "I don't know where her human body is, you know. I don't even know if it's dead yet. All I know is, she came to me, to protect me from bad things. She is, or was, braindead. That's how she was able to project her astral form.  
   "One day, when we were on tour, we got attacked. She'd taught me some moves, so I held my own, but some of their... ichor, I guess it is, got on my clothes. It's toxic. She yanked me inside, to the bathroom, and went looking for burns. I was fine--until I found out that nobody else could see her."  
   He huffed an imitation laugh. "Well, maybe Mitch could, we're not sure.  
   "So I had a breakdown, in the bathroom of the bus. She talked me down, but I guess it cost her, 'cause she started crying. I was just trying to comfort her, but one thing led to another..." He remembered who he was talking to, then. He jumped ahead, blushing above his beard.  
   "So she gets yanked away, turned into a dragon. It was... bloody, and cruel, but she did it... to protect me better than an astral projection could." The remembered pain flickered through the depths of his eyes, but the elder Kaplan didn't interrupt his story.  
   "Like I said, next morning she gets delivered. We keep her egg safe 'til it hatches, and at first, it's great. I've got a dragon." His head swiveled against the wall, and that little boy grin stretched his tired features for a moment that stopped his father's heart for that moment in time. Then, the joy faded, for both of them.  
   "She didn't know she was a dragon, which was kinda funny. 'Cept dragons don't wear clothes, and we both remember what she was, so it's awkward as hell." For once, Mike doesn't chastise his son for using that word. The blush is back, and he doesn't want to break the trance his son has fallen into.  
   "Showers, particularly. She wouldn't let me near her 'lady parts', as she thought of them, and her front paws don't reach, but by golly she found a way on her own. A real scrapper, she was. You'd have liked her." His head lolled toward the window.  
   "She seemed fine, at first. She tested what her new body could and couldn't do, all the while her pot belly is getting bigger. None of us noticed, because she was technically a baby." He brushed the back of Menolly's tummy with the knuckles of one hand absently.  
   "I should have known she'd be struggling with dysphoria. I should have seen that she... cared about me, in her own way. One night, I can't take the crying she doesn't think I've heard. I confront her, and she... Ah, I'll never forget the sound she made. I thought I'd hurt her, which was silly. Turns out I'd kicked off labor."  
   His head rolled back toward his dad. "Thing is, neither of us expected it. She'd had a hysterectomy when she was human."  
   The shock on his dad's face might have been funny, under other circumstances.  
   "So she cranks out five eggs like a champ. I had to call Esther, 'cause what do I know about childbirth? But she does it, all on her own. We put 'em in a basket, thinking it's done."  
   "But this little girl was in there," Mike prompted when he fell silent.  
   He sat a bit straighter, bracing for the next part. "Yeah, except dragons aren't built for that." The grooves under his eyes appeared darker when he told his father what she went through.  
   "You didn't think she'd make it," he said bluntly.  
   "She was stuck in that tub for three days after Menolly was born," he said by way of answer. "I thought it was the rough birth that had her depressed. Maybe postpartum depression, I don't know. I'm not an expert on dragons, no matter what her doctor says."  
   "So she has a doctor?" Mike asked. What he meant was, "ah, another person that knew before us." Avi didn't miss the subtext.  
   "The doctor was for the baby. We needed her to sign a birth certificate. It's not like we could take her to a hospital. I mean, what if they saw her eyelids, or the color of her skin?"  
   Mike looked confused.  
   "Eh, maybe it's a self-defense mechanism," Avi muttered. "Maybe only her mother and I can see what she really looks like."  
   Mike gestured for him to continue his story.  
   "So she's depressed, and I thought I knew why, but I didn't. Not really. Not until the day I took her out into the desert to stretch her wings."


	10. Dad Mode Activate

"There we were, sitting on a blanket having a picnic. I wasn't eating much, because I'd just flown on a dragon for the first time." Forgetting the fear of that day, he shone with pride briefly.  
   "It was a sweet family memory, I thought. Angel actually fed the baby where I could see, so it was like a bonding moment. Menolly liked it too.  
   "And then my girlfriend texted me..."  
   Mike handed the baby back to her father reluctantly, gearing up for Dad Mode. "I was wondering when you were going to mention her."  
   Avi blew a frustrated breath over his daughter's fine, rosy hair. "If it was hard telling _you,_ how d'you think I was gonna tell _her?_ "  
   "And have you told her?"  
   Avi clapped the baby's feet together, not meeting his dad's eyes.  
   "But you didn't tell us."  
   His shoulders bunched up. "This was after Angel got amnesia. Esther thought I should introduce them while she didn't remember that she... liked me that way."  
   Mike rumbled in that noncommittal way he had, when he was reserving judgement. "So, you left Angel at home whenever you saw us?"  
   He shook his head at the baby, still not looking up. "She can be invisible when she needs to."  
   "So, when you say you got her on Christmas, you mean she was _there_  on Christmas?"  
   Avi chuckled. "Yeah, that's how my clothes got so messy. I was trying to feed her oatmeal."  
   "And where, precisely, was this dragon while you were feeding her? As I recall, the stains were on your chest."  
   He looked up, surprised at the tone of his father's voice. "In my lap, of course. How else was I going to feed her under the table?"  
   Mike leaned back against the wall. His posture said he was going to make a point Avi might not like. "So this _woman,_ who you said _didn't know she was a dragon,_ was sitting _on your lap._ "  
   Avi's mouth dropped open. He hadn't thought of it that way. "I mean, she was in an egg for nine months, and then she was the size of a cat, so... I sort of... forgot..." His face turned a faint shade of pink, torn between a blush and going pale.  
   Mike's arms crossed over his chest. "I'm guessing she didn't forget so easily."  
   Avi slumped over the baby, who'd drifted off to sleep somewhere during the conversation. "I guess that's why she still hasn't gotten her memory back. It's been weeks, but the... doctor said it was up to her to come back. Maybe she won't, though. I mean, if it's too painful being stuck in a dragon's body, with a human baby, and... stuff," he finished lamely.  
   Mike gently took the sleeping baby and put her in the bassinet. When he sat on the bed, he asked the hard question his son hadn't thought to ask himself.  
   "If she got her memory back, and she could change back to a human, would you want her to? You have a girlfriend who's stuck in the middle. You need to consider her in all of this. I know your daughter was conceived before you met her, but that girl is here now. What are you going to do?"  
   Avi's head thudded against the wall. "It's a moot point, Dad. There's no way for her to come back, and she may choose to be a dragon forever. I may never get my Angel back. Since she doesn't remember liking me, the way is clear for my girlfriend, who is _already_  human."  
   Mike let silence be his reply for several seconds before shattering his son's tentative calm. "So she's the one you're choosing, by default?"  
   The bassist who traveled the world curled forward, head in his hands, right back where he started. He was stuck between the impossible and the improbable. He could see no good way out of the situation. He couldn't even imagine how to introduce the baby to the rest of his family, or what to do with her when they toured. He had a child, and no idea how to raise her in a positive, relatively normal environment. Her life loomed large in his mind, one big question mark. Heck, she didn't even have her own bedroom, which would be an issue soon.  
   He scrubbed his head vigorously with his hands. "Well, now you know what the great big _something_  is. If you've got any solutions, I'm all ears. Otherwise, I don't know what I'm going to do, or with whom."  
   Mike made his teacher noise. That was the only way they could describe it. "There are things bigger than us--even bigger than your dragon. Perhaps they'll see fit to give you a hand one of these days. Could be she turns human, could be you turn into a dragon. Maybe something neither of us can think of. All we can do is ask for help from above."  
   Avi laughed, but it was a sound bordering on hysteria. He couldn't tell his father that all of this had _already_  been the work of angels, _and_ the God he referred to. He knew without being told that if he tried, his throat would lock up like it did when he tried to say Gabriel's name.  
   "That wasn't meant to be funny," Mike chided.  
   "It's not," Avi said, his voice deeper than usual. A whirlwind of emotions colored it, but his father couldn't identify them all.


	11. New Recruits

Angel did, in fact, note the removal of the human child. She was relieved to have the whimpering in her mind silenced, so she could focus on the five alert hatchlings in front of her. This introduction to humanity was crucial, if they were to Bond with their humans. Since none of them would Bond to their sister, her presence was nothing but a distraction. The red and violet hatchling eyed the babe with distaste when he thought she wasn't watching.  
  _I hope whoever he Bonds with decides not to reproduce until he comes around, if ever,_ she thought absently.  
   "But what if we just don't understand what they need?" the blue whelp asked, bringing her back to the topic at hand.  
   "You ask," their mother said, as if it were the most obvious answer. "If they need a restroom, and you spotted one earlier, why would you not tell them so?"  
   The girl snorted a puff of steam in frustration. "No, I mean what they _emotionally_ need."  
   Angel tried to decipher the disjointed sentence, and the gray area subject, at the same time. "If you require lessons in empathy, I have none to offer," she said with regret. "I know more than an angel, less than a human. We can discuss real life situations as they arise, but you may learn more from your father than myself. My specialty is combat, stealth, and sign language. He handles the emotional needs that arise."  
   "That doesn't sound very efficient. What if _he_ has an emotional need? Do you know why he was crying in the kitchen? That would be a good example to start with." This was from blue again.  
   She didn't want to discuss it, but the others perked up at the chance of a real world scenario.  
   "I am skilled, but not enough to Listen to him and teach you simultaneously," she hedged. "I did not Hear what the issue was. Besides, he has his father and sister with him. Humans crave family bonding, if you didn't know. They may be more effective in handling his disquiet."  
   Roughly half of them nodded sagely, filing family time away as important. The other half looked unconvinced.  
   "If you wish to know, you may ask when and if he returns. Be warned: The deeper and more complex the issue, the less they seem to wish to discuss it. And then they break. I do not understand it, to be honest. Humans are complicated creatures."  
   All of them echoed her sentiment at the end.  
   "You don't understand them? How long have you been around humans?" the green boy asked. He was afraid of the answer, she could tell.  
   "My memory of the past is hazy, but they tell me that I am a full-grown adult."  
   Her children flopped to the floor in defeat, bemoaning the task ahead of them. She indulged the toddler reaction for a few moments, taking into account their age.  
   "Did anyone ask you to babysit their emotions?" she finally barked. The tone of command jerked them to their feet instantly. "That is not your job. Your sole duty in life is to protect their vulnerable hides from the evils of the world. You keep them whole and healthy, by any means necessary. If they cannot cope with what you do, erase their memories of it."  
   Her blue girl scowled. "That sounds so... cold."  
   Angel frowned down at her. "We aren't their friends. They have enough of those. We are their Guardians. I do not discourage friendship, you understand, merely the distraction thereof. 'Tis a fine line we must walk, younglings: friendly enough to make our constant presence tolerable, yet aloof enough to maintain our vigil."  
   "You make dragons sound like cats," Esther said, having snuck away from the lecture in the bedroom.  
   Angel cocked her head, thinking. "Cats or dogs, or a combination of the two, perhaps. I would say the attitude of a feline, with the work ethic of a well-trained canine. If you can remain alert, I see no issue with being as affectionate as a dog," she conceded for her soft blue girl. The prospect of being detached didn't seem to sit well with her.  
   "But you've got to learn what people do and don't like," Esther lectured. "Also what they're allergic to, and any health issues they may have."  
    Angel nodded along with her. "We are meant to be unseen by others, this you know. If we brought them something they did not like, it may cause disquiet, which could draw unwanted attention in a public place."  
   Esther clucked her tongue. "I was thinking more style differences, like whether they prefer hands-on, or hands off. Do they want their hair brushed by a dragon, or would they rather do it themselves? Do they want their family to know they have a dragon? Do they mind if you sit on their lap, their shoulder, or wherever? That sort of thing." She watched Angel for a reaction to the hair brushing, and was disappointed. Neither did she notice that all of her examples were pertinent to Angel and _her_ Bonded.  
    Angel nodded some more. "This is true. To blend in seamlessly, we must learn their habits. If they're scolding us for doing something they don't like, that's precious time we weren't fully focused on the outside world. It could also expose our presence. That leaves us vulnerable."  
   The red and purple boy scoffed. "Dragons are  _never_ vulnerable!"  
   Quick as lightning, Angel pinned him with a paw nearly as big as he was. Her face loomed close. "Never forget why we were Created, child. If our human is vulnerable to attack, then _we_ are vulnerable. What would happen to a dragon who lost their human, hmm? I do not know if you are to Bond as I have been, but if so, you will feel  _everything_ that happens to your human.  
   "Even if you are not Bound, what do you think our Creator would do to a dragon who failed in their sole purpose?"  
   The first trace of fear tinted his gaze, but with it came resentment. He disliked the invisible shackles placed upon them.  
   "So we're nothing but tools to Him?" he snarled.  
   "Yes. Very effective, very rare, _sentient_ tools of His will. It would behoove you to remember that, my son."


	12. First Choice

Angel removed her paw, but red sprawled indolently where he lay until she scruffed him upright.  
   "I hope they told you that you can be replaced," she told her children with chilling bluntness. "Angels have been doing your job for years, and will continue to do so until you are fully trained. Yes, little lass, you have to be every bit as good as an angel, but I believe in the potential I see in this room." She met each of their eyes in turn, lingering longest on her rebellious red.  
   "It is up to me to decide who is ready, and when. I may even send you back upstairs for more intensive training, should you require it. You won't be assigned a human right away. Personalities must be compatible, and it takes time to assess such things. If you have a question I can't answer, I'm sure your... aunt will be happy to attempt to answer it. Your father is another source of information, as is our roommate. Dismissed!" she barked.  
   Almost immediately, Esther had three hatchlings pestering her. Red flopped down in a sulk. One of the greens asked if he could investigate the backyard.  
   "It will have to wait until tomorrow. The foals are still spooked from your abrupt appearances, and you are new," she said firmly, in her best Mom Voice. "If 'tis new creatures ye wish, there are two in the metal box."  
   "It's called a playpen," Esther supplied helpfully. "This little green one was asking about it, too." She turned back to the hatchlings and their questions.  
   The green lad wrinkled his muzzle. "I dunno if I'm ready to deal with babies yet," he said. He sounded like most human boys before puberty hits.  
   "Then I suggest you familiarize yourself with the premises," she said. "We will explore the external areas on the morrow."  
   He poked his tiny nose in all of the nooks and crannies, just like any house pet would do in a new environment. It was quite practical to learn what's normal first, so Angel didn't see why Esther giggled when he snuffled behind her, chin whiskers quivering.  
   Eventually, the hatchlings ran out of questions for their aunt. Green boy had fallen asleep on the couch, so some of them huddled around him like a litter of puppies. Red curled up close, but not in physical contact with his hatchmates.  
   Only one of the green girls was brave enough to curl up right on Esther's lap. Angel reached for the whelp, who was eyeing her for that very reaction.  
   Esther casually laid a hand on green's back, letting Mama know she didn't mind. Angel shrugged and coiled in on herself to settle into Sentry Mode.  
   The little green girl looked up at Esther with thanks and hope shining in her eyes. Esther smiled and stroked her spine the way she'd seen her brother do a thousand times. The pale yellow eyes slid closed in bliss. Esther had to throttle down a chuckle, because she swore if the dragonet could've purred, she would have.  
  _Okay, I can see why he likes this,_ she thought. _It's like having a toddler and a kitten, all rolled into one._ She sighed wistfully. _I wish I had a dragon._  
   She'd forgotten, with the emerald beauty in her lap, the pain of Bonding. She was too wrapped up in the joy of having a dragon, even if it wouldn't last.

  _Well, that's one down. Four to go,_ Angel thought. _I was beginning to doubt she'd come around, after what she saw._  
   To her daughter, she gave advice without letting on that she'd already chosen her human. _:If you are assigned to that particular human, I would advise erasing her memory of the Bonding pain. She was most agitated when I Bound your father.:_  
   A sleepy mental "nod" and a _:yes ma'am:_ was all the toddler managed before slipping into slumber.  
   Angel filed away the look of rapture on Esther's face, and the specific color pattern of the dragonet who'd Chosen her. _Blue accents, purple underwing and earflaps, nose and chin horns. No wing claw. Yellow eyes._  
   She had to learn which was which, and their temperaments. She tentatively assigned the inquisitive green with whiskers to Kevin, in her head. He didn't seem overly emotional, nor emotionless.  
   The blue she might send to Kirstie, with her sensitive nature. The chubby-cheeked green might go to Scott, because of her bubbly personality. The red with attitude might do well with Mitch, but she wasn't positive yet. It was far too soon for that. She did not yet know if the sass from red would go against the grain with Mitch, or flow in the same vein. Time would tell.  
   All of this was background musing while she scanned the area. It was as quiet as you'd expect after a major attack, but she was never one to rest on her laurels. After all, the large creature and its entourage had appeared on the road, not in their neighborhood.  
   That still troubled her, the attack today. They'd learned that they couldn't get at him directly, so they'd begun attacking people in their vicinity. _They weren't even anyone he_ knew! she fretted. _Are they going to go after innocent bystanders for the rest of their lives?_  
   No matter what their plan was, they needed more dragons than they currently had. Even if this clutch were ready tomorrow, there were still parents and siblings to consider. Today, evil had attacked random passersby. It was only a matter of time before they went after real targets.  
   Fortunately for the band, a dragoness is nothing if not resourceful. If it was dragons they needed, then dragons they'd get!


	13. Gabriel's Sacrifice

In the end, they opted to wait to introduce Menolly to the rest of the family, but Mike firmly insisted that his wife be introduced to her grandbaby and their Guardian Angel. Neither Kaplan sibling could argue with his logic.  
   "If she found out _I_ knew, and  _she_ didn't, she'd have my hide," he said wryly. "I'd much rather risk your skins than my own, this once. You're the ones who kept us in the dark, so you'll take the brunt of it.  
   "By the way, I'd leave out the bit about the blood contract, if I were you. That still doesn't sit well on me, son."  
   Avi looked up from the car seat he was buckling Menolly into. "If I could tell you who sent her to me, you wouldn't worry so much. Unfortunately, I can't."  
   He was hoping to set his dad's mind at ease, but it just piqued his curiosity. "And why, exactly, can't you tell me?" His arms seemed to be permanently crossed today.  
   Realizing where he'd shoved his foot, Avi scrambled to cover his faux pas, but only the truth came to mind: "There's a Geas on us. If we tried to tell you, our throats would lock up. We couldn't tell you if we wanted to, _but_ they're good people. The best people you can imagine," he said, hoping his father would hear what he was trying to say. For effect, he looked upward--or he tried. His eyeballs seemed to bounce off an invisible ceiling.  
   Mike saw, though. He looked up reflexively, perhaps expecting to see some sort of creature huddled in a corner. He was too firm in his belief to be shaken by the lack of manifestation; in fact, the absence of corporeal beings only confirmed his suspicion.  
   Gabriel nudged Angel's shoulder. _:I like him. He has the faith Dad is always looking for.:_  
   Angel rumbled noncommittally. She hadn't gotten a feel for the man, aside from a protective nature. _:If you like him, that is enough for me.:_  
   Gabriel should have been content with her trust, but her simple acceptance unnerved him. He was beginning to see what the humans had noticed with her amnesia: she'd lost the spark that humanity had given her.  
   Unfortunately, there was only one way to force her memories to return, and it had been specifically Forbidden. It would leave them all vulnerable, and require the Guardian Angels to return to duty. The point of the dragons was to free up more personnel.  
   But there was a loophole, he knew. Through the physical contact of their shoulders, he subtly implanted the method of retrieval into her subconscious. He slid it into the deepest part of her subconscious, where her training was stored. If her Bonded broke, demanded she return to her former self, he'd given her the way to do it.  
   He disliked going against orders, and worried about the pair of them, should she return to her former self. It was not a task to be taken lightly. It would permanently close one door to her past, and make things more complicated for everyone--and yet, paradoxically, it would simplify everything about the Bonded pair's interactions.  
   He was so concerned that he gave the knowledge a very specific trigger phrase to release. It was what he thought Avriel might say when he reached his breaking point, and not before. He didn't want her thinking about it before the crisis point, because he would have to be in that frame of mind to accept the terms of regression. She mustn't suggest it before then.  
   Angel stepped away, toward the car, just as he finished implanting the knowledge and trigger phrase. Time manipulation was handy for that. He examined his handiwork as she padded away, found the data securely hidden.  
   Then he went about checking on his other wards on Earth. He knew that none of them needed his assistance, but he was, quite frankly, afraid to go home just yet.  
   The Kaplans piled into the car, unaware of the trouble Gabriel was sure to be in. Most of them hadn't seen him, at all. Angel cautioned them not to keep her at the elder Kaplans' home too long, or the infants would grow hungry.  
   "Wait, there are more?" Mike asked, halfway into the driver's seat.  
   Esther darted back inside for the two most vulnerable, but paused uncertainly in the doorway. She closed it as best she could with the troll on one hip, and the worg over the opposite shoulder.  
   "We don't have a car seat for the troll," she fretted.  
   "The _what?!_ " Mike yelped, whipping round to stare at the baby that looked human, to him.  
   Angel calmly informed him that the infants would appear as familiar creatures, but they were, indeed, supernatural. Then she volunteered to carry the troll while she flew above the car.


	14. Esther Gets to Know the Hatchlings

Mike vetoed the idea reflexively. He had trouble remembering that the less than adorable infant was a troll. He didn't want a baby flying around in a dragon's arms.  
   "Look, you'll need the next car seat up eventually. Why don't we go buy one, and put her in that?" he suggested.  
   Angel asked how they would get the troll to the store. "We can split up. I'll go with Avi in his car, and you can stay here with the... troll... until we get back. Then you can put it in my car."  
   " _Her_ , dad. They're both girls."  
   He didn't correct himself, he merely nodded at Esther and started the car. She went back inside and locked the door. She worried about being alone, remembering the last time Angel left the foals unattended.  
   "Aunt Esther, you're forgetting about _us!_ " the cute green dragonet pouted.  
   She leaned to put the infants back in the playpen that they practically lived in. "I'm sorry, sweetie. Was it that obvious that I'm worried?"  
   The green nodded, but the other four shrugged or ignored her entirely. She plopped on the floor with the hatchlings.  
   "Okay, so tell me what I don't know. How good are you guys at protecting us? How worried do I need to be?"  
   Red scoffed, his back toward her. "Better than you can protect yourself, _that's_ for sure!"  
   Esther whipped an empty bottle at the petulant child. It hit him squarely between the wing joints. When he spun around, teeth bared, she said with mock sweetness "Your mother would have seen that coming. Do I need to ask again what you can and can't do?"  
   His fangs remained in evidence, until his little sister stepped between them. "She made a valid point. Back off and answer Aunt Esther, or... or I'll tell Mama."  
   Red laughed, but it wasn't a nice sound. Much to their aunt's surprise, all four of his siblings mobbed him, pinning him to the floor. There was a lot of growling, though she couldn't say from whom, until he finally subsided. Apparently, the way to subdue him was to pin him. Their mother had done the same thing, and it worked, to an extent. She'd remember that, in the future.  
   "So..." she said into the silence, drawing out the word. "How worried do I have to be? Do you guys not have her sixth sense thing? What else do I need to know?"  
   The one with the whiskers sniffed. She wasn't sure, but she thought he(?) was slightly offended. "Of _course_ we do! We're dragons! _He_ wasn't using his, that's all." To his brother(?), he said "Whether you'll admit it or not, she just taught you something: never let your guard down, even when you're at home; wherever home is, at the time."  
   Red scowled at his sibling, then at her. To her credit, she stared calmly down her nose at him, over her glasses.  
   "I doubt you're afraid of anything," he said without much heat. She seemed to have taken the wind out of his sails, leaving him adrift and uncertain.  
   "Whether I do or not, there are two defenseless babies inside, and two mostly defenseless ones outside. It's them I'm worried about. We've already had a chimaera attack the foals, so I've got good reason to be concerned."  
   They assimilated the knowledge with murmurs, filing it away like good little soldiers. It made her vaguely sad, but she didn't need babies right now. She needed soldiers.  
   "I really wanna meet the foals," the green one with whiskers that she thought was a boy whined.  
   "I know, but your mother said it has to wait 'til tomorrow," she said firmly. Green sulked. He didn't know she'd heard that order. He was hoping to get her to let him do what his mother forbade, and it didn't work. She fought a smile. _Kids will be kids, no matter the species,_ she thought fondly.  
   "So, what can you do, and how can I help?" She asked again.  
   "One of us should probably keep an eye on the backyard," Whiskers said.  
   "If watching is  _all_ you do, from  _inside_ this house, be my guest," she conceded. She was very specific, because she knew that kids will try to find loopholes to get what they want.  
   Blue settled on the back of the couch to watch the driveway. The short-muzzled green one perched on the playpen, looking at the pup and baby. She didn't think that was very helpful, but it kept her busy for a bit.  
   That just left Red, and the green one that sat in her lap earlier. "We can fly, and fight a bit, but Mama was supposed to teach us most everything. We've got a basic grasp of Dragon Sense, but it's not perfect yet. We're supposed to practice it whenever we can," she said with a glance at her brother.  
   "They taught us what they could, but they have more wings and less legs than most of us, so it wasn't easy to get everything down," Red said reluctantly. She couldn't tell if he was being defensive or informative.  
   "Can you work together to take down something bigger than you?" she asked.  
   Red seemed to respect her a tiny bit for the question. "We were trained that way, yes. Until we're bigger, pack tactics were drilled into us. We can fight solo, but it's not perfect."  
   Esther nodded. "Did they have you spar against each other?"  
   His little spine straightened. "Yes, ma'am!"  
   Green shoulder bumped him. "You're just _itching_ to tell her you were top of that class, aren't you?" Her voice was just like any other little sister teasing their brother.  
   He preened his wing joint unnecessarily. "I wasn't going to mention it, actually."  
   Esther, Green, and the green on the playpen snorted. None of them believed him. He shrugged, which bore little resemblance to his mother's shrug, and strolled into Kevin's bedroom before she could object. He haughtily informed her when she stepped through the doorway that he was watching the road.  
   That left Esther and the little green girl to their own devices. She decided to tell her aunty all the things she was good at, and the things she needed to work on. They passed the time pleasantly, with Esther's head on a swivel to monitor the other four. If they thought splitting up would distract her, they were very wrong.


	15. To Grandmother's House We Go

Esther had ample warning when her brother and father pulled up, with her niece in the back seat. Both of the hatchlings in the front windows alerted her. She had the troll and worg in hand, and the door closed, when they arrived. She made certain all of the hatchlings were with her, so she could keep an eye on them.  
   Avi was only mildly surprised to see them arranged across the roof like little army men, patiently waiting instead of swooping all over the yard like any other creature their approximate age. Mike wasn't surprised at all, having seen her with Avi when he was a tyke, himself.  
   "The lady in the store installed it for us, so it looks like both of them will be in the same car," Mike said apologetically.  
   "Nah, it makes more sense that way," Esther pointed out. "Why would she be in your car after this? Now, they can take her with them to the store and whatnot."  
   The males hadn't thought of it that way. Angel had, but she didn't make suggestions about domestic chores, as a matter of course. It didn't even occur to her that her former self would have. She was, as Gabriel said, unfettered by human sentiment.  
   They got the infants installed in their respective car seats. Even though the troll was in the next size up, it'd been installed rear-facing, in deference to her youth. They couldn't tell the woman if she was the minimum weight for front-facing, which earned them a frown until Mike ad-libbed that it was a cousin's baby that they hadn't met before today. She was still skeptical, asked where the car seat she'd arrived in was.  
   Here, Avi was able to tell a partial truth: "We used the same car seat for her that we use for my daughter, but now we want to take both girls to grandma's house."  
   It was still strange, calling Menolly his daughter in public, but he had to get used to it. Angel was no longer hoarding their daughter, and since no one could see her, she was wholly his daughter, when they were out and about. Angel gave her no more or less consideration than the troll, or the worg, which often made him sad.  
   The saleswoman showed more emotion at the words "grandma's house" than Angel ever did, these days...  
   Avi shook off his melancholy to strap the troll into the car seat. This close to her, he realized that she wasn't precisely ugly, just... different. He tried making a funny face at her, and she giggled, just like any other baby. The only difference was the tiny tusks that were beginning to grow in, and the tint of her skin. The wrinkles that would dominate her face later were as endearing as those of a Shar-pei puppy. Perhaps not the most flattering comparison for a humanoid, but at least he wouldn't shudder when he looked at her, anymore. He tapped the end of her nose, then Menolly's, so she wouldn't feel left out.  
   He closed the door and got into the driver's seat. "Who do you want to ride with?" he asked his sister. She looked at the babies in the backseat, then her dad, obviously torn.  
   "Oh, go on. You won't hurt my feelings," Mike chuckled fondly.  
   She squealed, hugged him, and plopped a noisy kiss on his cheek. "Love you," she chirped, and all but bounced to the passenger seat. She didn't sit in the back, because there wasn't enough room for an adult with two car seats.  
   Mike shook his head, smiling, and got in his own car. He was about to start the car when his heart leapt out of his chest.  
   "Don't  _scare_ me like that!" he scolded three of... uh... his grandchildren... who were standing on the seats, looking out all of the windows. The two in the back ignored him, but a little green thing with a short snout looked away from the passenger window to apologize.  
   "Sorry grampa, but Mama says somebody's gotta watch your back." Then she turned back to her vigil.  
   He turned the key with shaking hands. The hatchling in the front squeaked when the engine started, but she didn't look away from the window. Her little wings hunched, though, as if she thought she was about to be attacked.  
   Unnerved though he was, he reminded himself that this strange creature was still his grandchild, odd as it was. He cautiously scratched between her wings, which startled her again.  
   "That's the sound a car makes. You're okay," he said in the same tone of voice he'd use with a pet or small child. After all, he reasoned, she(?) was a child, even if she wasn't a species he was used to seeing.  
   The other two made noises he thought were unimpressed. "Look here, young... dragons, I'm doing the best I can, to deal with this. I don't know how to talk to you yet, but you're still my grandchildren, so behave yourselves while you're in this car, you hear?"  
   One frowned at him, one stuck their tongue out, but the little green in the front was giggling. It was the best he could do, and he didn't want to get too far behind the other car, so he pulled out of the driveway. He drove reasonably, so they wouldn't be falling over all the time. It looked like his son was doing the same in front of him. The flailing the two in Avi's car were doing must've been childish antics, because the ones with him were handling it just fine.  
   He smiled and shook his head. _Kids will be kids,_ he thought fondly.  
   When they got to the home he shared with Shelly, the winged kids shot out of their respective cars as soon as the doors were opened. _I guess they can't go through the window like their mother,_ he thought absently, watching the whirlwind of color sweep the front of the house in a controlled formation. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that these weren't just children, they were warriors. It was a sobering thought.


	16. My, What a Big Family You Have, Grandma

Mike insisted on going in first. His children were just as happy to let him. They weren't terribly surprised when he came back out, shaking his head.  
   "She must be out with the dog," he said.  
   Angel asked if any of her offspring had mastered invisibility yet. All five gave her wounded looks.  
   "If we hadn't, there would have been a lot of people staring at the cars!" Whiskers said.  
   "Not if your mother projected a 'look away' field around said cars," she retorted.  
   Red gaped at her. "You can  _do_ that?"  
   She stared down her nose at him. "There is much you do not know about being a dragon, but neither do I know what you lot can do. Remember, you are half human."  
   Avi wasn't about to remind her of her own origins, because she was _forged_ into what she was. Their children were bred, and she was right. They had his DNA running through their veins, right along with hers. Red seemed to resent that fact.  
   "Since we have established that you can become invisible, who wants to go find your grandmother?"  
   Several paws went up, but before she could choose someone, Shelly Kaplan and their dog came around the side of the house.  
   "Keep your paw up if you Saw her coming," she calmly instructed. Only Whiskers could honestly do so.  
   "Now for a curve ball, children: How many of you can tell me what's unique about your grandmother?" Her back was to Shelly, who walked up to the dragon almost as big as her home without a trace of fear or shock.  
   Mike's mouth hung open as his wife circled the dragoness, noting aloud how much she'd grown in four short months. The  _dog_ was more alarmed than she was! He refused to go anywhere near the dragoness, but oddly enough, he wasn't worried about the hatchlings.  
   Blue stammered "She, uh, doesn't show fear, so, um... Is she not human?"  
   Shelly patted Blue on her way past, smiling enigmatically. The cane tapped away, same as ever, but there was a spring in her step.  
   "Been walking in your own skin, have you?" Angel asked.  
   Mike, Avi, and Esther gaped. They thought she meant _naked_. In a way, she did. Shelly just strolled among her grandchildren, memorizing the differences between them. She seemed not to hear any of them.  
  _:Do I take this to mean that they do not know?:_ Angel asked, abashed at having nearly outed her to her family.  
  _:I suppose now is as good a time as any,:_ Shelly replied. _:If they can accept you as you are, they shouldn't be horrified at what I am. That is why I kept it from them, all these years.:_  
_:I know. Do you need me to shield you, or do your clothes shift with you?:_  
   For an answer, Shelly tossed her cane to one of the dragonets and fell to all fours. Angel snapped out a leg to prevent her family from intervening.  
   "Wait for it," she said smugly.  
   Shelly Kaplan, mother of three and lover of nature, grew up and out, almost faster than the human eye could follow. Had they the ability to see through her skin, they would have seen how the bones grew into the proper configuration. Only Angel saw what it took for her to become her true self:  
   Limbs telescoped and bent into new joints, becoming longer. Her tailbone telescoped into a proper tail. Her shoulderblades popped out and down, to expose and make room for the wings that sprang forth. Fingers fused into two toes, with the thumb the third toe. The four smaller toes fused with almost audible clicks into two, with the big toe as the third claw. Blood flow inside the bones increased, expanding them further; turning the bones into hardened honeycombs the size of her human waist. Scales flipped out from under her skin in a rapid wave, tiny hairs on her elbows grew into decorative frills. She shook her massive head, her long hair stiffening into a single turquoise frill down her neck with a solid _whap!_  
   She saved the hardest part for last: pushing blood through her facial cavities, thereby expanding her muzzle into the same hardened honeycomb her other bones were made of. Horns slowly grew out of the back of her skull, and along her jawline.  
   She sagged sideways when she was fully transformed, but Angel was quick to shove her body beneath the older dragoness' keel.  
   "Do you require sustenance? How recent was your last Shift?" she asked with maternal concern. It was the first time Avi had heard that tone in her voice since she lost her memory.  
   Shelly allowed the younger dragon to help her lie down, head bobbing with fatigue. "I should know better by now," she chuckled. "But I wanted to show off a little."  
   She looked to her family for their reaction, and her muzzle paled. Angel's head whipped around, ready to scold them for whatever their faces showed. Esther ran into the house, quickly followed by Mike. Avi was rooted to the spot, his mouth hanging open, arms full of babies.


	17. Dragon Drop

"Avriel Benjamin Kaplan, you bring those babies here to meet their grandmother, right this instant!" Angel snapped.  
   He staggered forward, more out of reflex than anything else. He craned his neck up as he got closer, gaping at his mother, who'd just transformed into his favorite animal ever.  
   "Minor note, Mother: only one is her granddaughter."  
   Shelly snorted a puff of steam at her impertinent grandchild. "I know a Troll when I smell one. I know what she meant." To another grandchild, she said "I smell something else in the car, so why don't you go get it before the poor thing bakes in the car."  
   Red scowled and nudged Whiskers. Whiskers nudged Blue, who rolled her eyes and went to fetch the worg, no pun intended.  
   Avi crumpled at his mother's feet, smack between her forepaws. He would've fallen back on his palms, except his hands were occupied. Angel guided his fall with her muzzle, then lay down behind him so he could recline without dropping anyone.  
   "While your father recovers, why don't you greet your grandmother?" she asked.  
   Whiskers presented himself for inspection quite seriously. After a longing glance at her home, she dutifully examined her grandson. When she was finished, she gave him a bump with her muzzle. He grinned and moved aside for the next hatchling.  
   While she greeted her grandchildren, she asked Angel how it came to be that she had six of them, both human and dragon.  
   "Last I checked, his girlfriend was human, and you were a newborn."  
   This snapped Avi out of his fascination.  
   "She wasn't born a dragon, Mom. She was made. We're not allowed to say by who, but they started with a full-grown human. That's why she grew so fast."  
   Shelly snorted, this time without steam. She booped another grandchild affectionately before pointing out that dragons couldn't be made by anyone but the Creator. She really _looked_ at Angel, then.  
   "There hasn't been a new dragon Created since... well, further back than anyone in _my_ family can recall." She stretched out her neck, closed her eyes, and inhaled the unique, spicy-sweet scent of undiluted Dragon.  
   "My parents haven't been able to Shift in years. That's how long it's been since I smelled another of my kind." She looked up at Angel wistfully.  
   Suddenly proud of what had been bitter before, Red said "Mother isn't quite _our_ kind. She's a Celestial Dragon."  
   Shelly nosed Red head over tail. "I know that, silly boy. But if you hadn't told me, I'd never have known. She smells the same, to me."  
   She gazed at the younger dragon, trying to see her human form beneath the dragon. "I don't suppose you'd be kind enough to Shift for an old dragon?"  
   Angel stared out over the horizon. At length, she said "I do not have the capacity. I am separated from my human shell."  
   Avi hastened to tell his mother that she also couldn't remember anything of her human life. He watched Angel's jawline, for it was all he could see, hoping she wouldn't have another flashback.  
   Shelly also watched her. Now that he mentioned it, she did act different from other dragons. There was a certain stillness about her that you didn't find in young people. She seemed unburdened by the years she must have attained to have been honored in such a way. The tales all said that only mature adults were ever Crafted into Celestial Dragons, but she couldn't have been terribly old, if she'd borne children.  
   This train of thought brought her laser gaze back to her son. "Avriel, how is it that your newborn dragon has newborns?"  
   He looked down at his daughter and the Troll, trying to find the words to tell his mother, without losing her love or respect.  
   "Like I said, she wasn't born a dragon, she was born human. She went into a coma, and came to me as an astral projection."  
   "Who had help, I'll grant," Shelly interrupted.  
   He tried to nod, and as usual, was prevented. Her deep blue eyes widened. He shrugged. "I can't even say his name."  
   If you've ever wondered what it looked like when a dragon crossed herself, Avi didn't have to wonder after that.  
   "Anyway, one day we got attacked. Nothing too new, except I got tagged with blood, or ichor, or whatever. She had to make sure it didn't get anywhere but my clothes--"  
   "I can see where this is going," Shelly interrupted. "And I'll bet her wingman didn't approve, so she got yanked upstairs."  
   He nodded, wide-eyed. He hadn't thought about what Gabriel's reaction would have been. "I can remember what happened after that, but she can't--and I'm glad, because last time she thought about it..." he paused to clear his throat, awkwardly try to wipe away tears with full hands.  
   "Apparently, that is when I lost all memory of my human shell," Angel finished for him.  
   Shelly's great blue eyes welled up with tears she fought, to avoid drenching her son. The lack of emotion on the green-purple face in front of her made it doubly difficult. _It doesn't bother her in the least,_ she marveled. It made her sad, right down to her bones.  
   She turned to look at the house again, and the tears fell on her shoulder. Her husband and daughter were nowhere to be seen. They'd seen her true self, and run as fast as they could the other way.  
   Avi scooted around until he was leaning against her keel, stretched his feet out to touch his dragon, and said "I love you, Mom."


	18. Frantic Search

"Are you sure that's all you've got? Have you  _seen_ how big she is?! She's almost as big as _Angel!_ " Esther hollered from the pantry.  
   Mike yelled back that they were supposed to be grocery shopping when the car flipped.  
   "Aha! Mom's been stockpiling Tuna Helper in the corner here. It's not much, but it might last 'til we can get to the store. I know, it's mostly carbs, but it's _something!_ "  
   Mike peeked over her shoulder. "That'll have to do. You start cooking that, and I'll make a grocery run."  
   "Hang on, at least help me get it _started!_ We need a bunch of pots going at once, and it'll be quicker with two of us."  
   He set the keys back down and rushed back to help. They got four pots of Tuna Helper started, one for each burner, before she'd let him go.  
   Shelly saw him run out of the house, jump in the car, and roar away. She was on the brink of a torrent of tears when Avi asked if anybody else smelled food.  
   Whiskers flew inside to investigate, and returned laughing. "I hope you like something called Tuna Helper, Grandma, 'cause that's all they had, and I quote, 'dragon portions' of."  
   Her eyes lost that haunted look about them. Her neck craned toward the house, but she was too exhausted from Shifting thrice in one day without ample food. Her nares flared, and she caught the faint whiff of the boxed dinners she kept on hand for her kids.  
   "That was for you, if you came to visit," she protested without much force.  
   "Geez, Mom, how much of that stuff did you _have?_ " Avi asked, chuckling.  
   She looked down her long muzzle at her son. "Think about your appetite, and ask me that again," she chortled.  
   "Grandmother, ma'am, your husband went to get more food. Two of my clutch went with him," Whiskers reported.  
   "So they ran inside... because I needed food..?" Shelly asked, shocked and touched.  
   "Yes ma'am, that's what our aunt said."  
   "Hey! Aim those elsewhere, or I'm gonna sit with Angel!" Avi mock-scolded. He swatted at the soaked shoulder of his shirt, glad it hadn't hit one of the sleeping babies.  
   "You should've put them inside by now," Angel chided.  
   "I was understandably distracted," he said.  
   "Well, why don't you do that now, and then help your sister with the cooking?" Shelly suggested.  
   He stood, with Angel's help, kissed his mother's muzzle, and went inside.  
   Shelly watched him go. To Angel, she observed "He didn't even think twice about that. Has he been kissing you, too?" Her head swung around to meet Angel's eyes.  
   The younger dragon huffed. "I don't understand why, but he seems bent on showering every creature around him with affection. He sleeps with his legs over my haunches like I'm nothing more than a pillow, pins my neck to  _his_ pillow with an arm, and insists on 'kissing', if that's what it is, every time I turn around. Usually, it is my neck or shoulder. And then there's the tugging on my earflaps! I do not understand it at _all!_ Are all humans so clingy?"  
   Shelly looked at her as though she'd grown another head. "You do know that dragons show affection, too..?"  
   Angel shoved to her feet and began pacing. "Sure, a nuzzle here or there, but surely we don't feel compelled to acknowledge every single verbal exchange with some sort of... _mating gesture,_ do we? That seems like a waste of valuable energy."  
   The hatchlings who hadn't gone with their grandfather were watching with avid interest. Shelly seemed completely shocked at her assessment of affection, and at a loss for words. Eventually, she stammered "m...'mating gesture'? That's how you see it? Doesn't he kiss and hug the baby--whose name I still don't know yet?"  
   Angel stopped abruptly, one foot in the air. Her head cocked while she thought, the foot slowly lowering. "I suppose he does." She dropped down next to the elder dragoness with enviable grace. "I just... I don't remember being human, and I do not know how to be a dragon, if I'm honest. I was thrust into this new body, with no mentor to teach me how to walk, or fly, or fight. I had to learn it all on my own."  
   She looked to Shelly with pleading eyes. "I didn't know there were other dragons out there who could teach me. My duty is to my Bonded, so I could not go in search of a mentor."  
   Shelly's spine stiffened. " _Bonded?!_ You did _that_ to my son?!" Her voice bordered on a growl.  
   Angel's head swayed back in shock. "It was part of my Geas. I must know where he is at all times, and his health. I, myself, was Marked at my Creation," she said defensively.  
   Shelly's eyes whirled an anxious yellow. It wasn't the first time they'd done so, but this time, it was for the young dragoness in front of her. "You went through it twice? Why on Creation would you do such a thing?" she asked faintly.  
   Angel shrugged, which momentarily fascinated the elder dragon. "I must have thought it a worthy endeavor. I cannot say what my motivations were, for I cannot recall them."  
   The blue and bronze dragon looked upon the purple-green dragon with new respect, and motherly curiosity. "What do you think of my son?" She asked.  
   Angel shrugged again, which was an oddity in itself. Shelly had never seen that ripple in another dragon, but it made sense if she'd never met another adult dragon before.  
   "He sings like an angel. I can only guess 'tis why I guard him with my life."  
   "That's not what I asked."  
   "I do not know what to tell you. I know as much about him as I know about myself. Perhaps the person I was before could have given you a better answer."  
   Shelly felt a deep sadness, then. This girl must have thought quite highly of her son, when she was human. So much that she would willingly put her body through the worst torture known to mankind, at least to hear the old tales tell it. Then she was Marked, not once, but _twice_. And then there were the children...  
   To not remember such dedication was tragic. To not be bothered by the missing information was incomprehensible to her. This was no dragon, for they would have mourned that loss. No, this was an angel in dragon form. She did what she was told, and didn't question why she should do such a thing.


	19. Reunion

The old German shepherd loitered while they slaved over the stove, but they ignored him except for an occasional pat on the head. He couldn't have cheese, so they couldn't share it with him. They couldn't find anything big enough to hold all the Tuna Helper, so they hauled out all four pots of steaming casserole to their mother.  
   They tried to ignore the tension between the adult dragons as best they could. They didn't seem to be angry with each other, so they focused on getting their mother back on her feet.  
   After Esther set the first pot of pasta on the ground, Shelly bumped her with the bridge of her nose. "You could've said something, you know. I thought you two were running away from me."  
   Esther paled, mouth hanging open. "What? _No!_ You fell, and she said you needed food, so Dad and I focused on what we could do to help. Have we wrapped our heads around what's going on? Not really. All we knew was, you weren't doing well, and we could fix that."  
   She threw her arms around her mother's head awkwardly, hugging it as best she could. Shelly aimed a Look at Angel that said "see? Totally normal behavior." Angel rolled her eyes (unshuttered, in the presence of family) and picked up a pot of food in one paw.  
   "Do you require assistance, or can you feed yourself?" she asked without inflection. There was neither the maternal concern from before, nor impatience.  
_She's actively hiding from her humanity,_ the elder dragon realized with a start. _Any time someone gets close, she retreats behind that Angel Face of hers._  
   She tried to lift a paw to feed herself, but she had no reserves to draw from. With a scowl, she opened her maw. Angel scooped out a pawful at a time and dropped it in her mouth with all the care she would exercise feeding her own child. She was patient throughout, even when Shelly was not.  
   By the second pot, she was able to manage on her own. The detachment of the younger dragon unsettled her. Part of her wished she would go away, maybe patrol the premises, but she stayed by her side through all four pots of food. She did her... _duty_... though Shelly wasn't her Bonded human. She wasn't even currently _human_.  
   Mike returned with a full trunk by the time she was finished eating. He had the kids put the food away while he talked to his wife.  
   "It didn't occur to me 'til I was already at the store what you might've thought. Are you okay? Is anything hurt? Did the food help?"  
   Shelly shoved her muzzle into his chest, eyes squeezed shut to prevent more tears. He put his arms around her jaw as best he could, rested his cheek on her forehead. He turned and planted a firm, loud kiss on the scales that were almost as big as his palm, ground his forehead against hers. Angel looked away from the intimate scene.  
   "I would've understood, you know. You didn't have to hide all these years." He kissed her again for emphasis.  
   "I didn't know for sure, and I didn't want to lose you," she snuffled.  
   Angel couldn't handle the emotions flying about, so she sprinted toward the sage and stone, leapt into the air in one clean bound. She waited until she was clear of the humans, so she wouldn't spray them with debris. All five of her hatchlings trailed behind her as she flew patrol around the house, senses wide open. She would need to eat soon, so she settled into an easy glide, to conserve energy. The lazy loops around the property soothed her frazzled nerves. Human emotions always made her uncomfortable. She didn't know what to do, so she often wrestled with the urge to do exactly what she had: fly away.  
   The Bond kept her close to the property, but she flew high enough to avoid as much of the emotional backwash as she could. Now the whole family was in a tight knot, sobbing and trying to talk at the same time.  
   "You really don't know how to handle it, do you?"  
   Angel glared at her son briefly. "I told you as much this afternoon. I merely tolerate its presence in their lives. Emotion seems to drive everything they do. It is incomprehensible."  
   Whiskers dropped back with his siblings. They held a hushed conversation, likely thinking that volume mattered up in the air. This was not so. She heard every word. They decided among themselves that if they had a question about emotions, they would ask a human from now on. Their mother was a valuable resource for fighting techniques, but she wasn't very good with human relations.  
   She dropped in a stoop toward the ground, and a wide patch of open ground. This threw them off. They didn't immediately follow her, hovering uncertainly where she'd lost altitude so rapidly. She pulled up, backwinged to a stop atop a largish rock, and motioned them down to her. The competitive hatchlings glanced at each other before rocketing toward her as fast as they could. The more rational, or timid, ones followed at a more sustainable speed. They knew that if you dropped too fast, one wrong twitch of a wing, or tail fin, could send you into a spiral.  
   It was only wrong if it was unintentional, of course. Only two of them _had_ a tail fin, and only one of those was bold enough to purposely spin himself in a tight spiral toward his mother. He misjudged the difference between the air of Heaven and Earth, and nearly smacked into his mother's great, sweeping horns. Fortunately for him, she snatched him out of his plummet before he could impale himself.  
   As such, Red was the last to touch ground. She had to hold him while his equilibrium recalibrated itself. By then, the other four had landed. Blue hadn't used her tail fin for a spiral, but she had used it to her advantage in landing. She needed less space than her siblings, having backwinged with wings _and_ tail. It was a good thing, too, because her chubby-cheeked sister tumbled beneath her, when her back legs buckled. The little green hatchling was at a slight disadvantage, with her short forearms. They couldn't help absorb the shock like her three quadrupedal hatchmates. Whiskers knew his limitations, so he hovered for a moment before attempting to land. He neatly avoided his sister's tumble, as well. The other green girl landed to the side of her siblings.  
   "While the humans are busy sorting out their emotions, we shall see what you can do. Green girls, face off. Blue, face your brother." Red struggled to get free, but she set him to the side. "You'll take on the winner between Blue and your brother."  
   She scanned the boundaries of the Kaplan lands while she set them to sparring, passing time until they could all eat the food that she knew was forthcoming. There was always food with this family.


	20. Dragon Heart to Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel learns the history of her species.

The hatchlings were on their third sparring match when Shelly approached, still in her dragon form. She asked if she could watch, but Angel knew it was merely a contrivance. She wanted to talk to her about something that Angel may or may not like.  
   Angel shrugged in her unique fashion. "As long as you do not distract me from the lesson at hand," she cautioned.  
   "Of course not," Shelly replied, unruffled.  
   After a few minutes, Angel told the elder dragon that she may as well say what she'd come to say. "Unless it is a topic fraught with emotion, I can multitask."  
   Shelly snorted. "You think I don't know that?" After a few more minutes, she told Angel that she was older than she looked.  
   It was the younger dragon's turn to snort. "You think I don't know that? Besides the fact that I thought your kind extinct, it takes more than a human lifetime to perfect the Shift. I must admire the speed with which you achieved it." There was a pause, but Shelly was old enough to have gained the patience of a saint. "Had I the ability to Shift, I would wish for your skill with it. Should my children be able to, upon their majority, I would appreciate your tutelage."  
   Shelly briefly bowed her head, horns glinting in the fading light. "It would be my honor; presuming, of course, I can still Shift by then. Do you know when they will be old enough? As I've said, my parents can no longer walk in their own skin, so I don't know how much time I have left."  
   Angel shook her great head, twin frills reflecting the last rays of sunshine on the hatchlings, momentarily distracting one. He was promptly felled by his brother. She switched out combatants before answering Shelly's question. Or rather, not having the ability to do so.  
   "Even if they were ordinary hatchlings, I would not know. You would better be able to gauge it. These are half Celestial dragonets." Her shoulders and spine rippled in a shrug. "The only One who would know would never deign to inform me."  
   The elder dragon asked if the younger knew the origins of their species.  
   "As I've said, I thought your kind extinct."  
   Shelly bristled, for the first time in their acquaintance. "That just shows your ignorance, young lady. Whether you'll acknowledge it or not, we are the _same species_. The only difference is the infusion of human blood."  
   If she thought that would shock the angel in dragon form, she was wrong. "That is evident in my own offspring. We look the same, have similar abilities, but they are not as connected to the Creator as I seem to be; no matter where they were trained."  
   "If you mean they don't have as many angelic traits, you've hit the nail on the head." The bronze dragoness looked out over the sage and stone, and the lengthening shadows. "It never made sense, you know, that nobody knew we began as angels. They'll admit that Lucifer was a dragon, and yet they insist that something with six pairs of wings, or four faces, _must_ be humanoid. Oh, sure, not _all_ angels are dragons, but enough of them are, or were.  
   "I don't actually know if our forefathers are still alive. What I do know is, they came to Earth, and... let's just say they liked what they saw."  
   "Gregori, I would assume. Were they not cursed to walk the Earth? Was it not until Judgement Day, or some such event?"  
   Shelly shrugged. "I don't remember what kind of angels they were. Well, I should say that if any of us knew, we forgot it over time. You know how oral histories can be."  
   Angel nodded, absently swatting one of her children with her wing when she got too enthusiastic with her brother's tail.  
   "The first generation was said to be a lot like you. As they bred more and more with humans, we became less... angelic." She didn't say aloud that she thought it might be a good thing, having seen how removed from humanity Angel seemed to be.  
   "We don't have special powers, aside from telepathy, and the occasional spurt of steam. I think that's purely biological, by now. Probably something to do with our body temperature, I don't really know."  
   She laughed, once. "It's not like any of us have been dissected. If any of us die in our natural state, I'm sure you can imagine our forefathers make sure we're never found. I don't know what they do. Maybe they burn our bodies, maybe they can turn it into soil, or rock. All I know is, humans have never uncovered a dragon grave.  
   "After so many generations, we lose the ability to Shift. As for those who can, we usually die human. Eventually, we can't Shift anymore, so we tend to age with our human spouse."  
   She watched the children for a while, until she murmured "As will I. This will be my last cycle through humanity." She sniffed, then said louder "It's getting harder to fake birth and death records, you know."  
   Angel debated saying what was so obvious. In the end, the words had a mind of their own. "You married for love, this time."  
   Shelly slumped to her belly, eyes riveted on her grandchildren. Her neck stood high and proud, but tears shimmered in the early starlight.  
   "Will you ever teach your children to Shift?" Angel wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, or how it would affect her status as Guardian.  
   Shelly didn't answer for a while. The moon peeked over the horizon before she shook her head. "I don't think so. It can be a lonely life. I've seen it before, how the dragon blood makes them reckless, or... hollow. No, I'd rather they enjoyed their father's world to the hilt."  
   She looked up at Angel, who was still watching her children. "And they have. They have fulfilling careers, friends, everything they could want."  
   Her eyes followed Angel's, and she wondered if her son really had everything he wanted. His half human daughter would surely choose to Shift, with her scales and draconic eyes. She wouldn't feel at home in her father's world. These five were already dragons. Their mother was a dragon. What right did she have to decide what he could and couldn't do?


	21. Teleportation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Avi teleports for the first time, and rides adragonback with his children.

Angel reluctantly put her children, now tired from their sparring, in charge of guarding their aunt and grandparents. She had to retrieve Aragorn and Moonling, for they'd been gone too long.  
   "Come, Avriel. We shall return shortly."  
   He balked immediately. "You know I haven't flown that far before!"  
   She patiently reminded him that she could teleport. His mouth hung open. He thought she could only do it when Gabriel possessed her body, but it sort of made sense that she'd have to be able to teleport. She did say she could find him wherever he was.  
   "We don't have to fly, do we?"  
   Angel rolled her eyes. "You'll have to get used to flying eventually, you know. For the moment, we shall remain on the ground, if you must insist."  
   She scooped him backwards to her keel, and then everything went grey and fuzzy. If he hadn't felt her solid bulk at his back, her forearm around his chest, he would have lost his head when the world slipped from under his feet. His chest wouldn't move, as if he was frozen in place.  
   Then the grass of his backyard was under his feet, and he would have fallen forward, had she not retained her grip around his midsection.  
  _:'Tis more like suspended animation,:_ she told him. _:Get a good breath, then climb on my back. I need both forelegs for the foals.:_  
   She released him, clearly expecting him to do as ordered. After the shock of teleportation, breathing was the only thing he could manage.  
   "Get on! We are vulnerable while my paws are full!" She kicked him with the elbow of the leg holding Aragon, who added his small horn in Avi's back for emphasis.  
   "Right, sorry." He scrambled up where he'd seen the saddlebags sit, clinging to the last spine of each frill for dear life.  
   As soon as he was in place, his stomach dropped somewhere in the region of her hind legs. He squeezed his eyes shut, buried his face in the space between her frills. It seemed to take forever to get back to the cabin, but in reality, he probably could have taken about three deep breaths in that nothingness.  
   "Oh, those poor dears! They really couldn't wait, could they?"  
   Avi heard his mother's voice, but it took another breath to realize that he was on solid ground again. He opened his eyes and looked around, startled to be able to see over the roof of the cabin. He didn't know how he was supposed to get down, with the foals nursing.  
   He'd forgotten that he had a dragon for a mother, as well as a Guardian.  
   "Come on, son. I'm not so old I can't carry you on my back. It wouldn't be the first time, either." There was a smile in her voice, which was both familiar and unfamiliar.  
   He stepped on the sturdy elbow his Bonded dragon extended, scooted on his butt down her foreleg, onto his mother's shoulders. Angel promptly removed her paw from the elder dragon and scanned the premises, in full sentry mode.  
   Shelly stepped far enough away to flare her wings slightly, to sort of hold her son in place. She sank to her belly slowly, trying not to wobble or move too fast. She knew he could sit a horse, but dragons weren't arranged the same as equines. He, in turn, tried not to clutch the last spine of her frill too tightly, for fear of puncturing the light green membrane. It didn't feel quite as tough or leathery as Angel's, and she was still his mother.  
   "Go on, I'm as far down as I can get."  
   Avi let go of her frill, braced on one outstretched wing, and slid down his mother's shorter shoulder. When he saw that he hadn't been quite as high up, a wide grin of relief lifted his moustache.  
   "Is it weird that I kind of want to go for a ride now?" he asked his mother.  
   She laughed, glad that he accepted her true form. "Not weird at all, but I think your dragon might take offense." She'd forgotten that Angel wasn't the jealous type.  
   Angel blinked calm blue-green irises their way. "As long as you do not go far, I don't see why you couldn't."  
   The hatchlings, who were drooping on the ground, perked up. They looked to their mother, who made a shooing motion with one paw. They looked up at their grandmother with wide, pleading eyes.  
   Shelly laughed again, her heart full nearly to bursting. "Oh, all right. Come on, just don't expect a long ride. I've been out walking all day."  
   Bless his heart, he actually paused. "Are you sure you're up to it, Mom?"  
   She nosed him toward her shoulder, chuffing fondly. "Come on, while I've got the energy."  
   Avi all but jumped up on her withers, barely able to contain his excitement. He was careful, but quick. Much to their surprise, most of his children clambered up behind him. It seemed that they were too tired to fly, but not too tired to ride.  
   Shelly stood slowly, trying to get a feel for where everyone was, and how she could move without dislodging anyone.  
   "Come on, gramma, let's _go!_ Don't worry, we won't fall off!" The chubby-cheeked green girl was wiggling in the middle of her back, wings slightly flared for balance.  
   "Remember what you know about horses, Avi. Hold on with your knees. I promise, I won't break."  
   Then she turned toward the open fields and trotted happily out into the evening. She didn't immediately surge into a canter, as Angel had, but she was clearly enjoying herself.  
   She didn't stray far from the house, moving into an easy lope around it in wide ovals. As she'd warned, it didn't last long, but her son and grandchildren enjoyed it immensely.  
   "I hope we can do that again tomorrow!" Blue was all but bouncing on the broad bronze back. Her brother Whiskers had stayed behind, out of a sense of duty, but upon seeing their enthusiasm, he wished he'd gone. After all, their mother was here protecting the others. She hadn't really needed his help. If they went again tomorrow, he resolved to go with them.


	22. Embarrassing Mom-ent

Shelly and the grandkids flopped to the ground, tired and happy. Avi lay against his mother's side, looking up at the stars.  
   "Soup's on. Can you change back, or do you want to eat out here?" Mike leaned out the door, uncertain how to approach anyone in the yard. He tried to make it sound like a natural question, which his wife appreciated.  
   "If someone can find my cane, I believe I can. It's getting a bit chilly out here, anyway."  
   Whiskers popped up and nabbed it from where he'd set it against the side of the cabin. He was the most responsible dragonet in her clutch, so far. Angel reaffirmed her decision to pair him with Kevin, though perhaps Mitch or Scott would benefit from his presence of mind.  
   Shelly asked Angel to crouch next to her. She reared up on her hind legs, wincing when her pelvis realigned to a more human alignment, the tail shooting up inside her hollow spinal column. If it hadn't been for the bulk of the younger dragoness, she would've fallen forward. Her wings snapped together, telescoped down in size, folded into her back while her shoulderblades slid back in place. All of her bones compressed from honeycombs to notched tubes, telescoping back down. Her fingers and toes separated with an audible pop that made her husband flinch in sympathy. She blew out a puff of steam, which changed the pressure in her skull to allow it to perform a sort of Russian doll maneuver into itself. Last, but not least, she leaned into Angel and shook her much smaller head. The accordion-shaped frill flopped around her face in pale gold waves.  
   Mike was ready to catch her when she sagged against Angel, and Whiskers had her cane at the ready. Between the two of them, and Avi, they got her into the house, in a chair.  
   Angel shrank to her "indoor" size and followed them. Her children trailed behind her, drooping with fatigue. She let them fall asleep wherever they landed, metaphorically speaking. She had no doubt that there would be enough food for them when they woke.  
   When they were all seated around the table, Mike asked if they were allowed to know what "the girls" were talking about.  
   "I was giving her a history lesson. If she can't remember being human, the least I can do is teach her how to be a dragon, don't you think?"  
   Avi, seated next to her, lay a hand on her shoulder and kissed her cheek. "Thanks, Mom."  
   "Don't thank me yet, son. There's a reason she needs to know these things, and I don't think you'll like what I have to say." She took a bite, watching her son while she chewed. He was blissfully unaware of his obligation to their species, and it was her job as his mother to enlighten him.  
   "I don't know if it's occurred to you, but you two are the last known breeding pair of dragons on Earth. I ought to know, I've looked. True, we Shift, but I've been looking for a very long time."  
   Avi choked on nothing, because she'd waited until he was between bites to drop the bomb.  
    _"Mom!_  We are  _not_  a... mated pair!" Privately, he aimed a thought he hoped only she heard:  _:Sometimes, I don't even think she_  likes _me, okay?:_  
   Shelly calmly, pointedly leaned around him to look at the sleeping clutch of dragonets. "I'm afraid you are, even if you aren't."  
   Esther tried to hide snickers at her brother's expression, and failed miserably. Much as her husband had, Shelly aimed a Look at her and asked the same question he had.  
   "And when am I getting grandchildren from you, young lady? You're the elder sister, so why is he" she jerked her head to the right, "the first of you two to make me a grandmother?"  
   Mike made a noise Angel couldn't interpret. "She says she's concentrating on her career first."  
   Shelly aimed another Look across the table. "So are your brothers, and yet, here we are."  
   Ever loyal, Avi leapt to his sister's defense. "To be fair, it wasn't exactly intentional. The first time, she wasn't... corporeal, and the second time, I was asleep."  
    _"WHAT SECOND TIME?!"_  All three of his human family members asked it at the same time, jaws practically in their food.  
   Angel had the poor taste to choke on her food trying not to laugh. Her Bonded was as red as the tomato sauce, and she wasn't in any hurry to bail him out.  
   "Angel?" he asked faintly, realizing his mistake. "Back me up on this, would you?"  
   She swallowed before assuring them that he was, indeed, asleep for the second interlude. "His mate was there earlier in the evening. After she left, I took my customary place next to him." She shrugged. "I merely thought it night terrors."  
   Esther blurted, without thinking (which wasn't typical of her, but it had been a long day) "How did you  _not know?_ "  
   Angel shrugged again. "I doubt there is a human alive who possesses the necessary attributes to make it noticeable."  
   Shelly coughed. "Much as I hate to agree, she's right about that. Don't ask, dear, you don't want to know. Let's just say she wouldn't have felt anything... significant." She was studiously concentrating on her food.  
   Mike privately thought that he was glad his wife hadn't told him she was a dragon, if that were the case. He didn't even want to  _imagine_  the conversation they would have had afterward!  
   "I am quite certain a human would have enjoyed it," Angel said again, though Avi  _really_  wished she wouldn't.  
   "Anyway," Esther said, drawing out the word. "I guess that's why you called me about the whole pregnancy thing, huh? I thought you were talking about your girlfriend."  
   Both of his parents' heads swung his way. Being the man, it was Mike who had to ask if his son used protection.  
   Blushing almost as bright as the spaghetti sauce, he defensively pointed out that he'd been asleep at the time.  
   "Well, with an attitude like that, it's no wonder we're grandparents!" Mike was looking down his nose at his son with disappointment written plainly on his face.  
   "Oh come on, how was I supposed to know someone who didn't even have a body could get pregnant?"  
   Angel rapped his knuckles lightly with a wing claw. "I think he was referring to the nighttime incident. While you were half awake, he expects that you would remember to use protection, am I correct?"  
   Mike looked slightly uncomfortable with the way she phrased it.   
   "While we are addressing unpleasant topics, if you wished to know if there were any consequences to the evening, you could have asked."  
   He stared at his fork. "That's what Gwinn said, but..." His eyes lit with an emotion she couldn't readily identify. "You haven't exactly been the easiest person to talk to, lately."  
   Her eyes sparked orange. She leaned closer to remind him that she was not a  _person_ , she was a  _dragon_.  
   Her raised voice woke the hatchlings. Keen to get real world experience, they listened to their parents with interest.  
   He dropped down to her current level. Eye to eye with an irate dragoness, he growled "How could I  _possibly_  forget? Everything that was  _human_   _died_ that day. You don't even  _listen_  anymore! If you don't understand, you just...  _block me out_  and--what? Hope it blows over?"  
   Her frill flattened against his forehead, brow ridge dug into the furrow between his brows. "I. Don't. Understand. _You_. Opening my mind to the chaos that is humanity would merely flood my senses, and put us at  _risk_. I  _must_  remain objective,  _at all times!_ If you have emotional needs, there are plenty of humans to help you through them.  _That is not my job!"_  
   He was past caring that his family was watching their argument. The dam had broken, for the second time in one day. "And  _that's_  how you do your job?" His forehead dug into her skull. It had become a very literal butting of heads. "What  _good_  does it do me if I'm alive, but so torn up inside that I can't do  _my_  job? Here I've been, worrying about you, when I should've been doing prep work for tour."  
   Her head jerked back, out of the clash of eyebrows. "You have no cause to worry about me."  
   He reared back in his chair with a loud "Hah!" His arms flung out, then flopped to his thighs. He glared down at her, pushed far enough to ask the question that had been eating him up for weeks.  
   "You forget whose kids you could be carrying while you're fighting off demons, or whatever. Since you said I could ask, fine. Are you pregnant?" His arms crossed over his chest, fists pressed tightly to his ribs.  
   "Are you certain you wish me to answer while they are present?" she asked, trying to regain some sense of calm.  
   "They'll know eventually, so yes. Are you, or aren't you?"  
    _"Yes!"_  She spat the word at him, then went to join the hatchlings in the living room, who were wise enough to feign sleep the second she spun around.


	23. Dinner With the Kids

Silence reigned for several tense minutes. Avi calmed down by degrees, partly due to the shock of learning that there were more dragons in the room than he thought.   
   Then he realize that his parents and Esther heard everything. He stared at his food, though he barely touched it.  
   None of the humans knew what to say, but the hatchlings followed in their father's footsteps, without knowing. It was the bipedal green girl who first approached the table, cautiously. She stretched up to tap Avi's leg.  
   "Daddy? Is there enough for us? I hate to ask, but we haven't eaten all day."  
   Glad of the diversion, he shot to his feet to get bowls for his children.  
   When he came back with five small bowls, he didn't quite know where to put them. He looked to his parents for advice, pregnancy momentarily forgotten. He didn't know whether to seat them at the table, or put them on the floor.  
   "Wherever you put those, it's going to set a precedent, son. Does your table have enough room for all five of them, plus the baby when she's old enough?"  
   His dad had a point. Avi looked down at his children and apologized. "Sorry kids, but it doesn't. Do you mind eating down there?" Their expressions ranged from disappointment to anger, depending on their personalities. Red, for instance, seemed angry at being treated like a common house pet.  
   He sighed. "I guess we'll have to go looking for a bigger table. For now, this will have to do, unless you want to take turns?" This left the decision up to them, so he was off the hook. His parents privately applauded the tactic, but he wasn't out of the woods with them, so they left it unsaid.  
   The hatchlings were divided. Some really wanted to eat with the grown-ups, while others didn't want to be a bother. In the end, Angel pointed out that they were small enough to share chairs, two to a seat.   
   His parents went to fetch a couple of folding chairs from a closet. They only needed one person to go, but it gave them a moment of privacy.  
   "Are all dragons so... uncomfortable with emotions?" Mike asked his wife. "You do very well, but you said there were others before, so..." He tactfully avoided asking her age, though the question burned in his mind.  
   "Some of them weren't great at dealing with people, but..." Shelly glanced toward the dining room. "Never to that degree. She's more like an angel than a dragon."  
   Mike handed her a chair. "And how do you know what angels are like?" His hand cupped her cheek, to take away any implied criticism.  
   Shelly ducked her head. "I can't say."  
   "What do you mean, you can't say?"  
   He lifted her chin, but her eyes were sad enough to break his heart. "I can't tell anyone but another dragon. I'm sorry dear, but it's forbidden."  
   He sighed and hugged her close, chair and all. "I don't think I'll ever understand dragons. I love you though, you know that, right?"  
   She nodded into his plaid button up, two small dots of moisture wetting his collarbone.  
   The sound of bowls clinking against each other reminded them of their purpose. Mike wiped his wife's eyes before nabbing the second chair.  
   They put the kids' chairs close to their parents', even though Angel remained on the floor her children had abandoned, in favor of food. If she'd been her intact self, she would have noted with great fondness that they were just like their father, in that sense.  
   Because Angel declined to rejoin them, one of her children got their own chair. Even if she did need a chair, she could shrink to a compatible size. They slid her mostly empty plate to the middle of the table and arranged the bowls around it.  
   "No, don't try to fill them yourselves. Let an adult do it," Avi scolded. He sounded very much like a dad, which warmed his parents' hearts, odd though the circumstances were.  
   "I don't know, can she have Parmesan, Mom? Can dragons have cheese?"  
   Shelly laughed. "We can eat whatever we like, just watch their sugar intake. We weren't built for it, but we can have small amounts." In an aside to Esther, she said "That's one reason I enjoy being human. Two words: ice cream."  
   Esther laughed with her. "Now I'm going to feel bad eating it in front of the kids."  
   Shelly's eyes sparkled merrily. "If you bought it, I'm having some. They can go on patrol while we eat, if it bothers them." She assured her grandchildren that ice cream didn't have a scent, so it shouldn't tempt them too much. Some of them didn't look very happy about being excluded, so she told them what would happen if they ate too much sugar, phrased delicately for those who were eating. They stopped fussing, but they still didn't look thrilled.  
   The Angel he knew would have been sad to miss out on ice cream, but this Angel seemed not to take note of the conversation around her.  _Probably in sentry mode, as she thinks of it,_  he thought.  _I remember how upset she was to learn that coffee didn't agree with her.  
_    Halfway through their dinner, while the adults were eating dessert, Blue asked if she could ask her father a question.  
   "You just did."  
   Esther elbowed him. "It's been less than a day, and you're already making dad jokes."  
   "Is... is that a no..?"  
  The adults at the table chuckled.  
   "No, it's not. Go ahead, ask."  
   Still slightly confused, she asked "Why is Mama gonna have more babies? Did... did we not do something right?"  
   Ice cream plopped back into a couple of bowls, but no one noticed. None of the humans could answer her innocent question, because they didn't know. Silence again echoed through the house. They looked at each other, silently asking who would tackle the difficult subject.   
   As usual, it was their mother who took the bull by the horns. She stalked up behind Blue and nabbed her wide earflap between two talons.  
   "If you have a question for me,  _ask_  it. How can any of _them_ tell you why I've done something? It is a dragon matter, not a human one." She released Blue and turned away, but her Bonded stopped her with three short words:  
   "Then tell us."


	24. Butting Heads, Again

Her back was still turned, spine stiff. "I do not have to explain myself to anyone; particularly when the issue is so obvious."  
   Avi checked his zipper. He'd looked up alternate meanings for the word "issue" after the fairy incident.  _Oh, wrong issue,_  he thought.   
   "Obviously, it isn't obvious to us, so why don't you tell us? I'm sure your doctor would have preferred more of a break between clutches, so you must think it's important." It shouldn't have surprised them that Shelly would use logic that a dragon would understand.  
   Angel turned and sat facing them, declining a chair. She was tall enough to be seen without one. "Today proved that there is a greater danger than anticipated. This clutch was meant to protect the band, but the enemy has begun attacking people in your general proximity." She paused for a moment for her words to sink in. "Your mother may be able to protect herself and her husband, but most of the other relatives of the band members cannot. If you lot are too busy worrying about family members, you won't be able to perform to your current standards."  
   She looked at the hatchlings, one by one. "Even full-grown, no terrestrial dragon can protect an entire family. I would not expect such a monumental feat from you. So I must create a new batch of warriors." Her eyes dropped to the floor, as though her next words were difficult to say. A yellow glow lit the wood floor as she spoke.  
   "It is an arms race between good and evil. I am merely a weapons factory."  
   "I don't remember dragons being protectors of specific people," Shelly said into the silence that followed, a frown between her brows.  
   Angel looked up, the amber slowly fading from her eyes. "I cannot speak for your--our ancestors, but my children and I were Created to do just that."  
   Avi shoved his chair away from the table, started toward Angel, then abruptly paced the other direction. She cocked her head at him, no trace of anxiety in her gaze. He stalked back to her, stopped a foot away and dropped onto his heels in front of her. He seized her horns, so she couldn't avoid him.  
   "They are  _our_  children. Why do you always shut me out? When you need something  _human_  explained, then it's 'go ask your father', but any other time they're 'your children'. And yet with Menolly, she's mine alone. You can't  _protect_  humans if you avoid getting  _close_  to us!" He jerked her horns for emphasis, because she kept trying to look away. He knew it didn't hurt, because his skull felt fine, aside from the vein bulging ever so slightly at his temple.  
   A faint red sparked around her irises, but she was struggling to remain calm. "This Bond you seem so enamored of isn't  _romantic_. It is a  _diagnostic tool_ , nothing more. You  _have_  a human mate. There is no reason to play house with a clutch of hatchlings whose job is to become good enough to replace an  _angel_."   
   Since she couldn't get free of his grasp without hurting him, she ground her forehead into his, to make her point. It seemed to be the only way he would listen to her. "We are not designed to  _be_  your friend, but to  _protect_  your  _existing_  friends. We are not  _required_  to get close to you in any way but literal." She stepped on his knees with her forelegs so she could look him in the eye. "It does not  _matter_  whose offspring they are. It matters how well they get along with your friends."  
   He dropped to his knees, thereby dislodging her feet. He used the momentum, twisted, and pinned her head to the floor by her horns. Esther said it worked with Red, so maybe that's what it took to make a dragon do what you wanted. She glared up at him through the eye that wasn't pressed into lacquered hardwood.  
   "If it's so important for the kids to get along with the band, why don't you even _try_ to get along with  _me,_  huh?"  
   The crimson slowly faded from his dragon's eyes. She stopped fighting him, like Esther said, but he didn't like what replaced her anger.  
   It was defeat.  
   "I do not understand humans. I've tried to tell you, but you don't listen."  
   Then her middle eyelids, which stayed open whenever she was in a safe place, closed him out. The deep emerald irises disappeared behind a wall of impenetrable white. He didn't miss the sheen of moisture across the last vestige of her humanity.  
   Tears pricked his own already sore eyelids. He slid onto his butt, let go of her horns.  
   A quiet voice intruded on the oppressive void that followed, and turned his world upside down. He'd lost track of how many times it had happened in the past couple of years, but this time, it was a happy memory.  
   "If you don't understand humans, than maybe I should show my son how to become a dragon."


	25. Patience

“You may as well know that you won't transform today, and let that go.”  
   Avi deflated, slumped to the ground next to his mother. The light from the windows barely lit their practice grounds, but if he didn't have to worry about a new body, it wouldn't matter, would it?  
   “I can show you what to feel for, how to center yourself. Your body knows what it can do. It's your mind that you must convince. I know it sounds silly, but just telling you that it's possible goes a long way. There's no doubt that dragons exist, or that we can become human, and vice versa.”  
   She patted his shoulder fondly.  
   “It takes time, and practice. For you, it may take longer, because you have a full, challenging career, and not a lot of free time.”  
   She cupped his cheek, her face full of mother-love. “You  _must_  be patient, son. You will get there, in time. Trust me, I've been on this earth for centuries. Remember, ‘nothing worth having is easy’.”  
   He groaned theatrically. “Do you  _have_  to use my own quotes against me right now?”  
   Shelly slapped the cheek she held lightly. “It's not  _against_  you. It's  _for_  your sake that I use a quote you know so well. Patience, Avriel. You'll need more patience than ever before.  
   “So, we meditate. If you're lucky, you'll see the notches and hinges on and in your bones. That's the first step. You can't stretch muscles and joints, if you don't know you have them.”  
   He couldn't argue with her logic, so he followed her guided meditation, trying to see his own bones.

   Over the next few weeks, he practiced what she taught him, whenever he had the time. Sometimes, he practiced when he didn’t  _really_  have the time, but he couldn’t handle Angel’s detachment any more. His mother had taught him the first step to becoming a dragon so his dragon could learn to understand him, but it was becoming a useful coping mechanism. He had to "scan" his entire body, head to toe, so the meditation sort of forced him to relax and let go.  
   The hatchlings learned more from him than they did their mother, in his opinion. She taught them techniques like using their tails to trip land-bound creatures, but fighting was a small portion of being a Guardian. She wasn’t thrilled when he pointed that out, and it prompted another argument, but she had to admit, in the end, that he was right.  
   As a test, Angel assigned Whiskers to Kevin when he had his eye surgery. She also noted which of her children didn't get out of his way in time, after being specifically told that they had to be his eyes. It wasn't major eye surgery, but his vision was impaired, and they would need to be aware of their Bonded human's weaknesses.  
   She also kept track of how well they stayed invisible when strangers were in the home. That was one area she couldn't fault the angels, for there was only one instance where she had to erase someone's memory.  
   "It is good that there is so much preparation for tour, so many new faces for them to see, places to go," Angel said one night.   
   "Yeah, I'm glad they didn't drop them on us during tour," he agreed. "They would've gotten overstimulated the first day. Bubbles, move. Kevin needs to get through there."  
   Avi didn't notice how much he sounded like a father these days. Not being her whole self, it wouldn't occur to Angel to make note of it. Kevin did, and it reminded him of a hard choice he had to make soon. He looked down to see who was in his path, and it was the two-legged green girl. It was hard to tell the green ones apart, but she did have a very bubbly personality.  
   "Hey, can I talk to you for a sec?" he asked.  
   Angel was busy changing the worg's diaper before Gwinn came to get it, so she rightly assumed he meant Avi.  
   "What's up?"  
   "Look, it's... It's getting kinda crowded, don't you think?"  
   Avi, bless his heart, missed what Kevin was trying to say. "The worg is leaving today, and so is the troll. As for the kids, they'll be assigned to somebody when they're ready. It'll clear out pretty soon."  
   "I know, but... wait, you're actually letting the troll go? I thought you'd gotten attached."  
   Avi grinned and shuffled his feet. "I wanted to, but Gwinn already had a family lined up. Besides, it's gonna be hectic enough on tour. We still haven't figured out how we're going to take Moonling with us. If she were fledged, she could just fly, but..." he shrugged.  
   "If you'd asked, I could have told you," Angel said. "She will fly, with me. She must learn eventually."  
   The Beat Boys turned around in surprise. "It's across the  _entire ocean!_  She can't fly that far her first time!"  
   "I did not say her wings would be doing the work," she said with irritating calm.  
   Neither of them knew what to say. They didn't like it, but she was certainly large enough, and strong enough, to carry Moonling. If she got tired, she could always teleport. The kids could stay with the pegasus, or the band, whatever she thought best. It wasn't ideal, but it beat trying to get something that looked like a horse through customs!  
   "Anyway, like I was trying to say, you're gonna need the other bedroom soon..."  
   The light went off in Avi's head, then. Sadness turned his mouth down, but not into the comical Super Frown the fans knew. It was genuine regret.  
   "Look, it's no big deal. I can move in with my girlfriend, or we can maybe get our own apartment together..." He trailed off, uncomfortable with the situation.  
   "I would prefer if you waited until after tour," Angel said from the playpen, where she was dressing the troll in some frilly concoction Esther found. "It is my hope that one of the hatchlings will be ready to protect you, by then. It would make our job easier if you remain here until you can be adequately guarded."  
   Avi would have taken umbrage at her callous disregard for their freedom, but she'd just bought him a few more months with his best friend. He smiled with barely disguised relief and held up his hands in the "what can I do?" pose.  
   Kevin chuckled and punched his shoulder. "All right, I guess the boss lady has spoken. Besides, she's still a baby, so we've got a bit of time, right?"  
   Avi punched him back. "No rush."  
   Angel mentally rolled her eyes. If she didn't understand affection, she understood mock violence even less.


	26. Anatomy of a Dragon

Avi didn't get to go home to his parents' cabin as much as he liked, being busy with tour prep, but he went when he could. On one of his visits, his mother sat him down at the table with Angel and the kids around it. He knew Angel had been working on something, at her request, but she wouldn't show him until today. She reluctantly set it on the table when Shelly asked.  
   It was not what he expected.  
   "I think it's time we had The Talk, son. Your father can't tell you these things, so it falls to me."  
   "Us," Angel chimed in. "Keep in mind that my thumb is not as opposable as it once was. It will affect the images."  
   "If you ever manage to Shift, this may become need to know information." She carefully avoided looking at Angel when she said that.

   Shelly studied the drawing for accuracy before turning it so her son could see. "You haven't quite captured your body as we see it, but otherwise, it's about right."  
   Angel pointed out that it was difficult to draw something you could not see. "I can only guess at my cranial proportions--or any of my proportions, as a matter of fact. I cannot use a camera, so there was much guesswork. As for the male counterpart, it was largely instinct that guided the pen. I would not ask any of my sons to model for  _that_."  
   The sons in question, for those who could discern, were blushing at the thought of their mother drawing their "boy parts".  
   "As you can see, this is what she meant when she said you needed a specific pelvic arrangement. This bony projection out the front strikes what she has... interestingly named her 'happy spot' when mating occurs. Without it, she wouldn't feel anything... pleasant."  
   Angel didn't know if Shelly was being delicate in her phrasing because she was uncomfortable having The Talk, or because her grandchildren were listening.  
   "But you both said she wouldn't feel  _anything_. I don't see, in this diagram, why that... doesn't happen," Avi finished lamely. Mike would have been interested to know the answer to that, had he been present, but Shelly had purposely had this discussion without her husband, for the same reason neither woman were anxious to answer.  
   "In humans... Female parts start out small and expand as needed. In dragons, they remain the same size as the eggs they will one day pass. The only thing that shrinks is the opening, and that is to protect it from dirt and debris. As you've seen, it isn't foolproof, but neither are human protections." Angel was the most uncomfortable he'd ever seen her, without her human memories.  
   Then her words sank in. The eggs had been roughly the size and shape of  _footballs!_ His face paled. "Oh. Wait, it can't stay the same size all the time. Doesn't it shrink with you? Would the eggs be smaller, easier to hide, if you laid them as Whisper?"  
   Angel shook her head. "I cannot shrink that small, once the eggs reach a certain stage of gestation. As for the first part of your question, yes. The aperture shrinks proportionately. For it to be human-sized, my body would be roughly half the size of a human." She shook her head again, frill waving slightly. "We were not designed for human mating."  
   "That's true if you can change size, but for Terrestrial Dragons, it never shrinks." She laughed once, but it wasn't a happy sound. "That's why your father isn't here. It wouldn't do his ego any good to know it's--what, about two soda cans end to end, in size?"  
   Angel shrugged. "How would I know? I have never seen the anatomy of an adult male dragon, nor can I gauge my own capacity. It is currently irrelevant, and would require repeated intrusion, due to my varying size categories. I would prefer not to endure that, for the sake of a hypothetical situation."  
   Avi forgot, temporarily, what they were talking about. "Hey! You act like I'm never going to figure out how to Shift!"  
   Angel glanced at Shelly, who was staying out of this particular discussion. "Shift all you like. That was not the issue I was referring to." She paused, one brow ridge quirked to show that this time, she intentionally used the word for its dual meaning. "I was Created to protect you, not to become your mate. The current clutch should suffice, so there is no need to concern yourself with mating. Perhaps this discussion was meant to help you visualize your own anatomy, not figure out how to use it."  
   "Was it?" Shelly asked, brows raised. "What part of 'last known breeding pair' did you not hear?"  
   Angel literally bristled, spines sticking out from her body, here and there. The last time they did that, she got into a headbutting contest with her Bonded. "No matter Whom I work for, I still have a measure of free agency left to me. I will not become an heir cannon to repopulate an entire species! This world does _not_ need a resurgence of dragons. I was tasked with protecting _six_ humans." Here, she aggressively made the sign for the number six as best she could, with four talons. " _I_ chose to bring more into the world, and  _only_ to guard  _specific_ mortals. Unless there is more need of Guardians, it matters not whether there is a viable mate on this Earth!"  
   Avi set a hand on both dragoness' arms to get their attention, having realized the full impact of the situation. "Mom, she's right. Besides, you're forgetting my girlfriend. Before you say it, _I_ didn't forget her. I thought Angel  _was_ her when... you know... Anyway, the point is, I'm glad you told me, but I probably won't need to use this any time soon." He gestured toward the pen and marker drawing.  
   Shelly's jaw jutted forward. "You'll have to take a longer view than this, Avriel. You will outlive your girlfriend. I'm not saying you'll need this--" She slid the paper across the table. "--- _Now_ , but you might need it later. Even if it's a hundred years from now, I'll know that I've done my job as your mother." She sat back, her point made.  
   "Oh." He slumped back in his chair. "I forgot how long dragons live..." He thought for a while, and his dragons let him. "What if I just... don't Shift? Ever?"  
   "Then you will grow old and die, as a human does," Angel rumbled ominously.  
   "If you wait too long, you won't be able to Shift at all. Not even after your girlfriend dies of old age," his mother added.  
   Avi scrubbed his hands down his face, then left them there for a while. He moved them to his temples, staring at the drawing that sat across the table from them. "That's one hell of a choice to make."  
   His mother lay a hand on his arm, as he'd done to her. "If she's worth it, she's worth it. I never told you because I  _know_ how hard it is to be a dragon. I wanted you to enjoy your father's world, with his eyes. But your children are dragons, so I thought you should know that you had the option to join them.  
   "I won't be able to Shift much longer, I don't think, and that's okay, because I love your father. I made the choice to age with him, this time. I'll try to hold out long enough to teach your children, but I can't promise. Every time I Shift, my life span increases."  
   "But you were a dragon when we came to tell you about the baby," he objected.  
   She chuckled ruefully. "What can I say? Sometimes, I like to be in a body that moves freely, without aches and pains. I feel truly _free_ as a dragon." She cupped his cheek and smiled, a soft, knowing smile. "In a way, I envy you. The first Shift is always so heady. You feel like you can run, jump, fly, forever. And then your body reminds you that it takes energy to make the change, and you're so ravenous you forget about flight for a while." Her smile widened, and she looked almost as young as her son for a moment.  
   "That's why you eat so much, and stay so thin, by the way: dragon metabolism."  
   He laughed. "So even if I never make the change, I've still got some of the benefits of being a dragon."  
   She patted his cheek and leaned back. "Yes, you do. You'll get sick less, gain less weight, live longer." She waited to see if he heeded her words, what she didn't say. No matter what, he would likely outlive any human he married; especially with a dragon at his side, to make sure he didn't die prematurely.  
   Being the sweet optimist that he was, he didn't hear the words she didn't speak. Both adult dragons sighed, but neither wanted to disillusion him. For one, it was mother-love. For the other, it was avoidance of a difficult subject.


	27. Prenatal Dragon Care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Angel and Avi sort of forgot to tell Gwinn that Angel was pregnant...

When Gwinn came to get Aragorn, Avi was actually sad to see him go. Not quite as sad as seeing the little troll baby leave, but the colt had been a fixture in his yard for so long, it would look bare with just Moonling out there. He worried about the delicate filly. If Aragorn hadn't been there, she would've been an easy meal for the chimaera.  
   When he voiced his fears, his children perked up at the chance to prove themselves. They argued over who got to guard her, until their mother set a rotation schedule.  
   The hatchlings themselves were a surprise to Gwinn, the first time she'd come to retrieve the smaller babies. She was keen to give them all a physical examination, but Angel deemed it too early in their acclimation.  
   This day, she allowed it. Some of her children took umbrage, of course. Red was not in that category, which surprised everyone. He was proud to show off what a prime specimen of dragonhood he was.  
    _Maybe we should send him to Mitch,_  his father thought.  
   They didn't like that their mother made the choice for them. She told them in no uncertain terms that in their line of work, doing things against their better judgement might be necessary, on occasion.  
   "Whether it is erasing someone's memory;" here she aimed a direct look at Bubbles, who'd been spotted last week, "forcing your Bonded to do something  _they_  don't want to do, to keep them safe; or obeying orders from Above, you  _must_  be willing to do what is required. If you balk at something as simple as a medical examination that any other creature in civilization is subjected to on an annual basis, then I must question your dedication."  
   Having proven that he had no issue with the procedure, Red's chest stuck out with pride. She scolded him so often, he was in the clouds, being on her good side. His parents let it slide, because he  _was_  corrected so often. Whiskers, being the other hatchling in the minority, bumped him with his shoulder. He was too practical to stick his tongue out, but he was still young enough to poke at his brother from time to time.  
   Gwinn gave the boys a thorough once-over, with Kevin again taking notes. No one was comfortable when she examined their reproductive equipment, not even Gwinn. She wasn't used to dealing with creatures that had scales and sentience. Usually, it was one or the other. Both were bipedal, which was slightly easier to handle than the quadrupedal hatchlings, because she tended to forget that they could understand her. Something about four-legged creatures made it difficult to remember that they could speak. Sure, unicorns spoke, but they used telepathy.  
   By the last hatchling, she'd gotten the hang of saying everything aloud, both to Kevin  _and_  her patient. The other younglings thought it was hilarious, when it wasn't happening to them. When they were the patient on the counter, it was suddenly very serious, and  _why_  couldn't she talk to  _them?  
_    "Okay, since you don't have official names yet, the files are under your temporary nicknames, if that's alright." She turned to Angel, where she was on familiar ground. She didn't know why she could keep Angel's sentience in mind, where the younger dragonets gave her trouble. Perhaps it was because she was large enough to look in the eye, and see the sense in her gaze.  _Those odd, human irises might also be a factor,_ she thought wryly.  
   "Alright lady, your turn."  
   Angel snorted. "I've been examined postpartum, and at six weeks. I see no need for another examination so soon after the last."  
   Gwinn put her hands on her hips. "I've been poking and prodding smaller versions of you for the last hour. Before my memory gets wiped again, I want to see what's similar, and what's different. Now that I've got a feel for, as you call them, Terrestrial Dragons, I need to compare my findings to a Celestial Dragon."  
   "As you wish." Angel dropped to her keel without further objection.   
   She didn't acquiesce to show her children the drill, as Avi suspected. She merely saw the sense in the girl's request. She was unique, and there would likely be important differences between herself and her children. Shelly Kaplan said that there were different capabilities, so perhaps there was physiological evidence of it. She might feel another organ, or skeletal structure, that her children did not possess.  
   Gwinn did find a couple of differences. First of all, her special Sight told her that Angel's bones did not have the hinges and seams that her children's did.   
   That meant that Angel would never be able to Shift.  
   It shouldn't have surprised Avi, but it did. He'd begun to think that maybe she just didn't know how, since she couldn't remember her human self. It hit him like a blow to the stomach: he would never see the Angel he remembered again.  
   He dropped to the couch, staring at his hands. Only one of the children noticed. It was Blue, of course. She didn't ask what was wrong, having learned that her mother was right about one thing: the bigger the Thing, the less humans wanted to discuss it. She just climbed up in his lap to watch the rest of the procedure.  
   "Hmm, that's interesting," Gwinn said. "The last time I gave you a once-over, you weren't pregnant."  
   Her eyes slid to Avi, to gauge his reaction. There was none, which confirmed her suspicions. She looked up at Angel. "Last I heard, your only potential liaison with a male was  _before_  your six week exam. Do I take this to mean that you have some way of storing semen, or is this a regular partner of yours?"  
   Angel's eyes never changed. No hint of anxiety or embarrassment colored her calm gaze. "I do have a method for storing semen. I was, however, fertilized prior to my last examination. It is easy to miss, that early."  
   Gwinn crossed her arms, stoutly ignoring the inference . "And the other part? Is this going to be a regular thing? What species are we working with here? Do I need to be concerned you're going to nearly die again? I'm not exactly thrilled that you  _chose_  to fertilize so soon after you had them," she said with a jerk of her head at the hatchlings.  
   Angel held up a claw. "First, I did  _not_  'nearly die', as you say." She held up another claw. "Second, I have been assured that it is not a 'regular thing'." She didn't so much as glance at her Bonded when she said it. "Third, I cannot contain semen indefinitely."  
    _"And?_ What  _species_  is he? I need to know if I'm going to need special equipment, or read up on some esoteric species I've never heard of!" Gwinn was losing her patience.  
   Angel snorted. "As the only known Celestial Dragon on Earth, do ye think I'd mate with aught besides another dragon?"  
   Gwinn threw up her hands. "I didn't even know there  _were_  dragons outside this room!"  
   Knowing about Shelly, it was no lie for Angel to assure her that there were a very few Terrestrial Dragons left. "Their numbers are so few that it is highly unlikely you would have met any. Even less likely is the chance that one would require your services, no offense."  
   Gwinn scowled. "I've been looking practically my entire life, and you found one in the  _three months_  you've been alive?!"  
   "To be fair, I was human before these three months. Also," she interrupted another tirade, "dragons can sense others of our kind. You do not have that luxury, despite your shadowy aspects."  
   Gwinn digested that for a while. When she saw the wisdom of the dragon's words, she asked one last question.  
   "So how long do I have to prepare for this clutch of eggs?"  
   Angel shrugged. "It depends on many factors."  
   Gwinn stalked out to the yard to halter the unicorn, grumbling "Of  _course_  it does!"


	28. Tour Prep

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trying to get five hatchlings, a pegasus filly, and a baby ready for a tour of the United States and Europe. What could go wrong?

When Gwinn was outside, Avi asked if Angel had any idea how long they had to prepare. "Even if it's just an estimate, any time frame would help."  
   Angel shrugged in her unique way. "All I can tell you for certain is that if I am not in a safe location when they would be ready, I can delay until it is more feasible."  
   He sighed. "I'm asking because we're about to tour again, and this time we're going to  _Europe_. This tour is two months long, and you're already what, a month along already? We don't even  _start_ the tour for two more weeks. Can you  _guarantee_  that you won't go into labor before we get back here?" He had hold of one of her horns, so she couldn't avoid the issue.  
   She calmly informed him that if he required it, she would make it happen. "Knowing the timetable in advance does help. Thank you." She removed her horn from his grasp and went to use the restroom. Bubbles still hadn't mastered the technique, so she followed her mother to observe.  
    _My Angel would've been embarrassed about that,_  he thought. He was wrong, but he'd begun putting "his" Angel on a pedestal. Any time this Angel didn't react the way he thought she would have, anything she didn't think was important, any time she misunderstood something because she wasn't Listening, he thought "my Angel wouldn't have done that." Sometimes, he was right, sometimes he was wrong. It was so difficult to predict what his dragon would do, but he was forgetting that he couldn't predict what she'd have done before, either.  
   In this case, for instance, Angel would have shown her children how to do something as many times as they needed her to, even if it was in the bathroom. She'd always been a practical soul. The torment of her situation merely obscured it sometimes. Now that she wasn't burdened by it, she was entirely pragmatic.  
   While they prepared for tour, she was as unruffled as ever. She didn't fret about his hair, or fuss over his suitcase. He was an adult, and she trusted him to do those things himself. Besides, she saw what went in, and what didn't. If he missed an item, she quietly instructed the closest hatchling to put it where it was supposed to be.  
   She oversaw the packing of their daughter's belongings herself. Since she was considering assigning Blue to Kirstie, she walked her through what babies require. She had a feeling that Kirstie would be the most likely of the band members to have children first, but she made sure that all of her children knew what their little sister would need on a trip.  
   "If you are kept behind for further training, it may become essential that you know these things," she told them. So far, they were all progressing well. Even Red was settling down. She wouldn't tell them that, of course. They needed to know that failure was always a possibility, else they would become cocky. That was how mistakes were made.  
   She'd found, during their training, that some of them could teleport, while others couldn't. She suspected it was due more to mentality than ability, and she said as much. It was better to attempt something and fail repeatedly than to assume that it was not possible--unless told otherwise, of course. They would not be able to do anything that she could not, so if they tried something new, she would give it a shot. If she couldn't do it after repeated attempts, they could reasonably assume that it was impossible. She always gave it her full attention, in case it was a useful ability, so they could be certain she'd given it her best.  
   Angel drove them harder, drilled them without warning, because tours were unpredictable. She asked trusted people to drop in unexpectedly, to test her children's reflexes. Even Cecil was in on the game.   
   Since Avi was still wary of flying, Cecil was the willing "victim" in the aerial rescue courses. Avi felt bad that Cecil wasn't the first person to test his saddle, which gave him the perfect excuse to opt out. Well, that and tour prep.  
   Knowing that her children wouldn't grow as quickly as she had, Angel taught them team rescues. She used some of Menolly's dolls for solo rescue tactics as well, which they needed to learn before they were assigned to a human. They would, eventually, be big enough to carry a rider, and she might not have the time to teach them new things by then.  
   Moonling joined in the aerial antics as much as she was able. It didn't do much besides strengthen her wings, but that would come in handy after she was weaned and fledged. That's why pegasi stay with their mothers longer than unicorns, after all. They must be taught how to fly, and it was why Angel was so ideally suited to fostering her. Not only could she feed the filly, she could do what her dam would have, had she lived.  
   By the time the band was ready to board the bus, the hatchlings were in fine form. Moonling had been acclimated to the equipment trailer she would ride in for the U.S. portion of the tour, though she still didn't like it. It was too dark. Blue volunteered to sit with her while they were on the road, being one of the hatchlings who could teleport. She could open the door for some fresh air, as long as it wasn't for very long. They didn't want other cars noticing anything amiss.  
   "You keep forgetting that we can do the lookaway field," Blue pouted.  
   "On the contrary, I am more concerned that  _you_  will forget," she said, making sure to look at all of them. "I merely teach you all to exercise caution, to avoid needing the field, should you forget. It would be ideal for it to be an automatic reflex, but we must take into account your age. I take nothing for granted, and neither should any of you."  
   She was giving this last lecture in the parking lot where the bus was sitting. They were fairly vibrating with excitement. She wanted to inject some caution and reason into the situation. Poor Kate couldn't keep getting her memory erased.  
   "Are we clear?"  
   "Yes ma'am!" they chimed in unison.  
   "Good," she said, hoping it truly was. "Mount up!"


	29. Tour

The hatchlings took three days to settle into any sort of routine. Angel let them work through the kinks, and mingle with the band. She wanted to see who naturally gravitated toward whom. This did not necessarily mean that she would assign them that human, of course. If one got along with Mitch, but not Scott, they were not a match for either. Also, though Red and Mitch were much alike, she worried that neither would curb the other if they started to get out of hand. She wondered if Mitch might not do better with the steady Whiskers, or perhaps the easy-going Bubbles.  
   It was Avi who noticed that Esther was the only one who could keep Red in check. It was in Las Vegas, when Red and Mitch wanted to go out on the town. Esther didn't think it was a good idea for any hatchling to go out alone in such a colorful,  _loud_  city.  
   "Wait, so you're saying we can't go anywhere?" Mitch asked, his brows lowered in what they'd learned was the prelude to a sass storm.  
   "I didn't say that, I said we shouldn't send  _them_  out tonight," Esther reassured him.  
   "But aren't they supposed to be protecting us?" Scott asked, what little brows he possessed knitted right along with Mitchi's.  
   "He has a point," Angel reluctantly admitted.  
   "I volunteer!" Red chirped.  
   "No!" His mother, father, and aunt all vetoed.  
   Mitch pouted. "He's the most fun, though."  
   "That's what I'm worried about," Esther and Angel said at the same time. Esther laughed tightly.  
   "If you want to take someone with you, why not Blue and Whiskers? Blue doesn't get out of the trailer while we're on the road, and Whiskers..." Esther trailed off, uncertain how to phrase his steady nature without offending him.  
   Scott and Mitch looked at each other and said "Dad!"  
   "Precisely," Angel said. "He can keep a level head while you two make merry. My only concern is how the lights and noise will affect him."  
   "Speaking of noise, maybe Blue should stay in. She's got those big--adorable, of course, but big ears, and I'm worried she'll get overwhelmed."  
   Scomiche said "dad" again, but this time it was aimed at Avi.  
   Esther groaned. "The only one that doesn't have earflaps is..."  
   "Bubbles!" Scotty beamed. "Pleeeeeease?"  
   "Heavens no!" Avi yelped. "You remember last time she snuck a sip of your soda?" Scomiche apparently thought it was hilarious. Her parents, on the other hand, shuddered to think what would happen if the bouncy green dragonet got hold of  _alcohol!  
_    "Green should do well enough," Angel said firmly.  
   Neither Scott nor Mitch could think of a problem with her. She wasn't a barrel of fun, but she wasn't a downer, either.  
   "If either of you get overwhelmed, let one of us know, and we'll switch someone out, okay?" Avi knelt at eye level with them to make sure they knew he was serious. "If nothing else, maybe your mother can give you a break."  
   Angel grimaced, but she didn't dispute his claim. She wasn't overly fond of loud noises or bright lights, which was why she was so well-suited to her Bonded, but she would do what she must, to protect her children.  
   Esther still wasn't convinced it was a good idea to take any of the children, so she got gussied up and went with the boys. She brought Bubbles, since she could keep an adequate eye on her while the festivities were going on. Kirstie and Kevin sought quieter accommodations for the evening, so Red and Blue went with them. The parents, as usual, stayed with Moonling and Menolly.   
   Blue had taken offense when Angel refused to let her watch the filly while the adults did "grown-up things", thinking her mother doubted her ability to be alone, period. Angel reminded her about the chimaera, which none of her children could tackle without help. Avi, being the gentler parent, stroked her little spine and reassured her.  
   "We're not just protecting Moonling, we're protecting you, too, 'kay?"  
   The hatchlings hadn't thought about themselves as children very often, having been raised as soldiers. Angel took the opportunity to teach the younglings that they needed to know their own weaknesses, or they were likely to be slain out of hubris.   
   Red, of course, had taken equal offense at the notion that he was weak in any way, so Esther reminded him that it was a temporary condition. It soothed his ego to be told that every creature on Earth began vulnerable, dragons less than most.  
   Blue cast one long look back at them, curled around Kirstie's neck. She wanted her parents to get some free time to relax, but they just wouldn't give in. It made her sad. She saw the stilted atmosphere between them, when they weren't doing parent things. Being young and optimistic, she thought that a date night would magically fix things.  
   Fortunately, she was with the one member of the band who could dispel her misguided notions. When she brought it up at dinner, Kevin immediately shook his head.  
   "Maybe before she lost her memory, but now? Naw, that's the problem. She can't remember why she protects him. Yeah, she knows he can sing, but... Most of the things she liked about him before just... annoy her, now."  
   "Not being able to remember how you ended up with a guy, and  _six_  kids, has got to be messing with her head, too," Kirstie pointed out. "She's got  _so much_  responsibility on her shoulders, and no idea why she's got any of it. She's got to make sure all of us are okay,  _and_  all of you, and there's no time to relax. Before you say anything, she  _can't_  take time to relax, because if she's not on guard, somebody could get hurt."  
   Blue slumped down in Kirstie's lap. "It's not fair," she grumbled.  
   "No, it's not," she agreed.  
   "Once Moonling is fledged and weaned, she'll be able to relax a little," Kevin said.  
   "Yeah, if it weren't for her, you wouldn't be cooped up in the trailer all day," Red growled.  
   "I  _like_  her. It's no trouble, really."  
   Kirstie petted her awkwardly, like she would a cat. With her ears, she almost looked like one. "Can I ask why we call you guys Red and Blue? That'd be like me being called Black, just because my hair is black."  
   Red, sitting on the windowsill, snorted. "Those aren't our permanent names. You get to name your own dragon Guardian, but until then, they've gotta call us something."  
   "Wait, we get to name our own dragons?" Kevin perked up. "I didn't know that. I don't have a  _clue_  what I'd name any of you!"  
   Red bristled. "We are your dragon  _Guardians,_ not  _your_  dragons."  
   "We don't know that," Blue argued. "Mama says we're supposed to Bond, so that kinda makes us theirs."  
   "Pfft." It was interesting hearing a dragon try to make that noise. It sounded sharper than when a human did it. "You're forgetting that we'll live longer than they will."  
   Kirstie looked sad. "Aww, that's gonna be rough, isn't it?"  
   "That's why Mother tells us not to get too attached to our humans."  
   Kirstie wrinkled her nose at him. "You can try, but it's not easy. I know people who've had pets they really weren't fond of, but they were still sad when they died."  
   "Whoa, did you just call us  _pets?_ " Kevin frowned.  
   "No, no, but... We live as long, compared to a dragon, as pets live, compared to us. That's all."  
   "Huh..." Kevin flopped back against the seat, thoughtful.  
   "I hate to interrupt, but I don't think we can keep people away much longer. The lookaway field works best when people don't know you're there. There are about four or five fans in a booth over there, and they keep looking over here."  
   "I was letting them finish their conversation before I dropped mine," Red drawled.  
   "If you don't want to be bothered, we should leave now," Blue offered.  
   They stayed, while the dragonets went into deeper invisibility than their passive perception filters. There was no Bond between humans and dragons, but the calm efficiency of the professionals soothed any nerves the youngsters might have had left, by now.


	30. Vegas

The evening went relatively well. Bubbles had to be constantly monitored, and eventually switched out for Blue. Blue immediately flattened her ears and hunkered down in her aunt's lap, as miserable as predicted.  
   Reluctantly, Esther sent her back with Kevin and Kirstie, who'd gotten in a cab back to the bus. Fortunately, Blue's teleport worked best when she was going to a person. Red took that to mean that he was supposed to replace her, but he couldn't teleport. She popped back to the bar with him in tow, then promptly vanished from the loud, brightly-lit nightclub.  
   Red's pupils shrank to pinpricks. His earflaps and frill flattened to his neck, but he wouldn't admit to anyone that it was too much. He simply closed his eyes and relied on his Dragon Sense. His worked better than Blue's, anyway. It meant he had to put his frill up, but blocking the sound helped immensely. His aunt helpfully pinned his earflaps to his skull with one hand.  
   Whiskers stood on Scott's shoulders, alert and seemingly immune to the bright lights and blaring music. His eyes were closed to slits, to filter as much information as possible, relying more heavily on his extrasensory perception, as his brother did.  
   Green was a mirror of her brother, except she stood on the back of the seat behind Mitch. He was too animated to stay perched on his narrow shoulders. Whiskers seemed to take pride in moving with his human pedestal.   
   Where Red bragged and strutted, Whiskers exuded a quiet confidence. He didn't swagger, but you got the impression he was doing so, in his own mind. He didn't need anyone to praise his skills, because he spent so long honing them. He was as serious as Bubbles was not. It didn't surprise anyone that he was the second hatchling to master teleportation, though it had been quite a shock that Bubbles was the first.  
   Bubbles herself made it back to the bus before falling asleep, but only just. As soon as her half-closed eyes spotted the bus, and more importantly, her mother's sphere of influence, she was out cold. Kevin chuckled when he felt her go limp in his lap. He carried her in like a puppy.  
   Blue wearily flapped off to check on Moonling before she joined her family on the bus. She arrived at the trailer just in time to see her mother snap the neck of a werewolf with her massive jaws.  
   "See,  _this_  is why I don't like leaving her--" she stopped talking, because her mouth was suddenly occupied firing a bolt of lightning--well, more of an electric shock, at her age--at a second werewolf.  
   Her mother seized the electrified creature in one paw, the remains of the second still in her firm grasp. Her tail wrapped around its muzzle.  
    _:Now, child! Go for the jugular!:_  
   Blue hesitated, until she heard Moonling whinny in distress. The terrified sound set her eyes alight with crimson. She launched her tired body at the furry beast's throat, fangs bared. She tore a hole in the artery of the much larger beast with the surgical precision of a very small creature.  
   Angel jerked the bleeding creature by its muzzle toward the pavement, out of her daughter's reach, stood on the shattered skull with one hind leg and swung a kick at a third lycanthrope that Blue hadn't seen. The paw that had been holding her last victim slashed the eyes of the beast, blinding it to the focused attack of her daughter.  
   Though Blue was angry that they'd threatened her four-legged friend, she was a well-trained warrior. She saw the torn eye sockets and made a calculated attack from behind, with her forepaws. Her head, and femoral arteries, were well clear of the vicious fangs that weren't bound, as the previous victim had been.  
    _:Check the perimeter while I deal with the corpses. And use_ all _of your senses this time!:_ She scolded. She'd Seen all three attackers, but Blue hadn't. Her daughter relied too much on her large eyes and ears, and it would cost her one day, if she didn't branch out.  
   Angel kept her senses wide open as she grew large enough to devour three werewolves. She ate the first victim that she still held with one paw, before it had a chance to regrow the skin and blood vessels she'd torn. The second would take longer to come back from a shattered skull, so it remained pinned beneath her hind foot. She swallowed the last victim whole, then scraped the remnants of the other off the pavement. She never enjoyed licking blood off the ground, but it saved questions later. She drooled all over the scene, to prevent any evil aura from lingering. Even if they never returned to this particular venue, others would. Though she was here to protect specific humans, she was still a creature of God. She would do what she could to keep the darkness at bay.  
   Blue returned while Angel was cleaning her face and paws. Where her old self would have gone indoors to use the facilities, this Angel washed herself the same as any other four-legged creature. Blue sat next to her and did the same. She couldn't see all of the blood splatter, and neither could Angel, so they helped each other where necessary.  
   Avi came out when it was deemed safe, so he saw mother and daughter grooming each other. It warmed his heart to see this otherwise stern commander, with her relatively tiny daughter between her paws, thoroughly cleaning one of her ears, while Blue nibbled at the claws that were currently nearly as large as her head.  
   He watched them for a while, but his bunk was calling his name. "If you'd like, you girls can use the shower. I'd feel better if you were inside when I go to bed, y'know?"  
   Blue giggled. "Yes, Papa." She looked up at her mother with an "isn't he adorable?" look, which Angel returned. He was worried about two dragons being out after dark.  
   Mother and child humored the silly human. Angel even puckishly tucked him in before going to wash up. When they were clean, Blue went to keep Moonling company, and Angel curled up on her Bonded human's pillow. They'd begun with all of the dragons in the living area of the bus, but Kevin had pointed out that they were going to share bunks eventually, so they should get used to the confined space while they could. Angel had a rule that no hatchling was to sleep with the same human two nights in a row, and she even insisted that Blue spend a few nights indoors while one of her siblings watched over the filly.  
   It was cramped in the bunk, with a baby, human, and dragon, but one of them didn't sleep. She could make certain that he didn't roll over on the baby, and the baby didn't roll out of the bunk. Most nights, she lay on his head, and Menolly lay in the crook of his arm. This night, their daughter was curled up facing him, the tiny cap of coppery hair barely peeking out from the covers.   
   Angel reached out to tuck the blanket under her chin, so she could breathe. Little evidence of maternal concern touched her scaly countenance. She was more affectionate with her draconic children, which would have worried their father, had he been awake.  
   But he wasn't, so Angel was left to guard an entire tour bus full of dragons, humans, and one pegasus foal while they slept.


	31. Visualization

In all of this familial bonding and acclimation, Angel never allowed her Bonded to forget to contact his mate. Twice a week, she reminded him to call his girlfriend. It wasn't that she thought he'd forgotten her existence. No, she was reinforcing the idea that he already  _had_  a mate. With all his mother's talk of being the last known breeding pair, and the slight swell of her abdomen, she put as much distance between them in that regard as she could.  
   When he wasn't talking to his human mate, doing shows, or being a father, she tried to guide him in his meditations. She didn't really think he would manage to Shift with the chaos around them, but it took his mind off of other things.  
   The children, mostly Blue and Green, saw this as an opportunity to draw their parents closer. Blue impishly suggested that if Papa felt the corresponding bones on Mama Dragon, it might help him visualize his own potential.  
   They saw right through the ruse, but Esther surprised them by agreeing with the girls. "Unless you want to feel up Mom's bones," she smirked.  
   His reaction was a swift negative.  
   "But my skeleton will not help him, either," she reminded them. "I do not have the notches and hinges. When I was Created, it was one-way."  
   Avi dropped to the floor, cross-legged, ostensibly to meditate. He'd forgotten, in the hectic pace of tour life, that she would never be as he remembered her.  
   "We don't know if he'll be bipedal or quadrupedal, so the children are little help. They do possess the correct skeletal arrangement, but they are also too small."  
   "Plus they're so young that they aren't fully formed," Kevin pointed out. "What? You guys  _constantly_  forget that I went to medical school. Look, at their age, their skulls haven't settled into their permanent shapes. Heck, Angel was still growing horns when she was  _twice_  their age... Whatever that translates to, in their uh, growth rate. Do we know how fast you guys grow?" To his credit, he looked at the nearest hatchling, instead of the adults.  
   It was Red, who shrugged. "As fast as anything else on Earth? Nobody here knows, and the ones who  _do_  know weren't very specific."  
   "O...kay... So it looks like it's Angel or your mom, unless you want to wait maybe ten years for one of the kids to be big enough. Or just keep blindly poking at your own bones. Up to you, man."  
   The Bonded pair locked eyes. Neither was thrilled with the idea. In the end, as always, it was Angel who gave in to logic. She extended one foreleg for him to examine. She was currently nursing, so it was all she could spare, besides her skull. She deemed it far too complex for a first attempt.  
   "Close your eyes, find your center. Only then should you extend your senses further."  
   It was always harder to focus when Menolly was nursing. The sound tugged at his heartstrings. Being in contact with Angel, with his senses wide open, it wasn't his own body that he Saw.   
   He Saw everything around them.  
   If he hadn't known better, he would've thought that his eyes were wide open. His head turned, "looking" around him with her Sight.  _:Is this what you See when you close your eyes?:_ he asked in wonder.  
    _:Yes. It is not what you should be Looking at. Concentrate on the task at hand, or I will be forced to narrow your focus for you.:  
_    He blinked his closed eyes, out of startled reflex.  _:You can do that?:  
_    As quick as thought, he could see nothing but his body, and hers. It was disorienting. It Looked like they were floating in a void, though he could feel the hum of the bus beneath his legs. He used that to ground himself, more out of a sense of self-protection than conscious thought.  
    _:You are forever forgetting that I cannot lie. If I say that I can do something, believe it.:  
_    He nodded, knowing she would See it. He Looked at the limb before him, and at his own arm. They looked almost exactly the same!  
    _:Not quite, but close. My wrist joints are stronger than yours. I don't know how that happens when you Shift.:  
_ He rumbled a vague, wordless answer. He was already Looking up her foreleg, to the elbow. It, too, was similar to his elbow, but presumably reinforced as well.  
   Angel sat up and took her arm back, to burp the baby. He was abruptly left with his own skeleton to Look at, until she scooted close enough to touch knees with him. Her body sprang abruptly back into "view", which threw off his tentative balance.  
   Her knee was bent at an awkward angle to meet his. He noted how it flexed, where it would be, in relation to his own leg. Her feet were longer than his, particularly the toes. She walked digitigrade, or on her toes. It would be like walking in high heels, without the heel. Her other leg was braced on the floor, the shin flat to the carpet, as well as the top of her foot. When it wasn't tiptoe, it looked a lot like his own feet, aside from the pointed heel and fewer toes. He could see how his mother's foot might lock into the arrangement he was Seeing, though he couldn't figure out how her skin stretched over the combined toes. Angel's foot was no help, being fully fused into three toes.  
    _:I would imagine that her scales cover the seam between toes the same way that her hairs change into frills, however that works.:  
_ He made a mental note to ask his mom about it when they got home from tour. There wasn't enough space in the bus to Shift, but all he was supposed to be doing at the moment was visualizing, so he filed it away for later.  
   He Looked at her tail, which wasn't very helpful. It didn't perform the Russian doll maneuver that his would, so there were no spaces for the vertebrae to stack inside each other.  
    _:While that is true, you can at least See that they get smaller as they go down the tail. That may be useful information.:  
__:Fair point.:_  
   His Sight scanned up.  _:Oh. I didn't know your hips connected to your spine.:  
_    She chuckled.  _:I did say that it was an approximate sketch. We were mostly concerned with the organs at the time. The only pertinent bone in the drawing was yours.:  
_    Her choice of words had them both blushing, but he forged on. He was getting tired, and that was never a good time to be outside his own body in any way.  
    _:Okay, so your pelvis is different than mine? They both have that weird projection, but yours is... where? Is it... higher than mine?:  
__:Both of our pelvic bones sit above our reproductive outlets, but yours goes further toward your belly. If mine were that long, it would pierce my uterus. Were I to allow such a thing, your... tender parts would be sandwiched between both pelvic bones. That is why my cloaca does not stretch, or have any give to it, whatsoever. If it were not so... reinforced, you would risk great harm in attempting to continue the species.:  
_ No one could hear what they were saying, but they could see him shift from a cross-legged position to one where his knees were firmly together, to one side.  
   "Now I kinda want to know what they're talking about," Esther whispered. Mitch agreed.  
   The Bonded pair ignored the speculation.  
   Avi was about to follow her pelvis to the spine, but he got distracted by eight tiny skeletons above the bones they'd been discussing.


	32. Grownup Stuff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You know you were imagining it, I merely wrote it out.

Avi fell out of the meditation like a stone into a bucket. He was so surprised that he nearly fell sideways. He sat there, braced on his hands, knees still twisted to one side. His eyes struggled to focus on the carpet in front of him.  _Eight?!_  
_:Yes, eight. That should suffice, for the moment, yes?:_  
   He was silent for some time, blinking at the floor. His brain, which was already tired from a busy day, had trouble processing the reality before him.   
   The others were whispering among themselves, but the consensus was to leave him to work through whatever was happening. He didn't look hurt, either physically or emotionally; just stunned. Those who knew to look to Angel for answers saw an unruffled dragon calmly burping a baby in a frilly yellow dress.  
_:Are they all dragons this time, or is Menolly getting a baby brother or sister?:_ He finally asked.  
_:She is getting eight brothers and sisters,:_  Angel said slowly, in deference to his fatigue.  
   The look she was giving him didn't exactly reassure anyone, but the kids could tell it was just some sort of Grownup Thing they could ignore.  
_:You know what I mean. I love her more than I can say, but… she almost killed you. I don't want to go through that again.:_  He wobbled to his feet and staggered into the bathroom. He needed a shower, and it wasn’t like they were limited by distance, or external noise.  
   His friends, sister, and children watched him go, with varying degrees of concern. Some, like Red and Whiskers, dismissed the whole matter, because it was a Big Thing that their father wouldn't want to talk about. Esther and Blue resolved to ask one of them about it later. The rest of the group was somewhere in the middle.  
_:For the fifth or sixth time_ that I can remember,: Angel growled, : _she did not ‘almost kill me’. There is nothing that I know of that can take my life.:_  
That should have reassured him, but it didn't. _:Just tell me, would you? Are they all dragons?:_ He hurled his clothes to the floor, heedless of where they landed.  
_:Why would they be anything else?:_  she asked, slightly offended.  
He raked his hands through his hair, freed from its bun.  _:Because I'm human.:_  He twisted the shower knob with excess force.  
_:Currently, yes. But your DNA is dragon, through and through.:_  
   He ducked  his head under the warm spray, to try to make sense of what she was saying.  _:Then how do you explain the baby?:_  he asked after a while.  
_:Easily,:_ she said.  _:You say that I was human when they extracted the genetic materials.:_  
   Avi got shampoo in his eyes.  _:Hold on… You're saying that the reason we have a human daughter_ isn't  _because of me, it's because of_ **you?!:  
** Angel winced at his tone, but refused to acknowledge the looks being directed her way.  _:Yes. You can see why I am confident that this clutch is, as you say, all dragons.:_  
He scrubbed his hair far more roughly than it deserved. Just when he thought he understood his life, it threw him another curveball!    
   Angel put the baby in the porta-crib and curled around it, ostensibly asleep. The children, Esther, and Kevin knew she was in Sentry Mode, but the trio didn't. She'd trained the hatchlings to leave her be when she was on watch, on the grounds that she needed to focus. That left Kevin and Esther. She would leave it up to her Bonded to fill them in, should he wish to do so.  
   "What do you think that was all about?" Scott whispered to Kirstie and Mitch.  
   The hatchlings didn't let them know that their mother could hear every word. She'd also drilled secrecy into them, first and foremost.  
   "I don't know, but whatever it was, he's shaken pretty badly. Do we... give him time, or..?"  
   Scomiche didn't know any more than Kirstie did.  
   Esther patted her arm. "I'll talk to him in the morning. Let's at least let him sleep on it."  
   They all went back to what they'd been doing before the evening's entertainment. Social media was nice, but it was still there when the dragons weren't doing something interesting. None of them would admit it, but it was like living on the set of a soap opera sometimes. It took their minds off the stress of touring.  
   The dragonets had the opposite viewpoint, for the most part. Their lives were theirs, so this oddity that was social media amused them. Most of them didn't let it affect their primary purpose, but their parents curbed their enthusiasm often. While they were busy scanning the area, showering, cooking, or anything that didn't involve the children, they would perch on the shoulder of whoever was looking at their phone or laptop.  
   All except Blue. She had two reasons to spend so much time with Moonling. Aside from a genuine enjoyment of the filly's company, and the quiet of it, she also had a nasty habit of zapping electronic devices. She tried not to get too close to anything modern, until she got full control of her elemental powers.  
   Green couldn't keep her mind on the screen for long. Like Blue, she was a sensitive soul. She snuck away, into the bathroom (which was tricky, but she'd gotten the hang of hovering by now).  
   "Hey, Dad? Do you need a hand, or anything? I know Mom usually scrubs your back, but I've gotten pretty good at it, if you want..." She didn't call them mama and papa, this once. She thought he needed help with adult things, so she tried to sound older than her few chronological months, in the hope that he'd let her in; both metaphorically and literally.  
   He was in the shower, his head against the cool tiles. He didn't seem to have heard her. She tiptoed closer, tapped on the frosted glass. He jumped, hand to his chest.  
   "What? Oh, hi. Is something wrong?"  
   She loved that his first concern was for others.  _I must take after him,_  she thought.  
   "I just thought I'd wash your back, since Mom's busy. I've mostly got the hang of it, but she's always on us to practice, so I thought..." She added the plea at the end, because he looked about to turn her down. If she let him think he was helping her, too, he might be more likely to say yes. Had she thought about it,  _that_  kind of thinking was from her mother.  
   His mouth smiled, but it didn't look quite right. "Sure, just let me turn around."  
   His back was already turned, but he had to get the soap. She assumed that he wanted her to let him turn  _back_  around before she opened the door.  
   Avi didn't really feel like company, but you never got to stop being a dad. He handed her the soap over his shoulder, keeping the grown-up bits facing away from her. She might not understand what they were, or what they did, but that was precisely why he kept his back to his daughter. One, he didn't want to have The Talk with a child under a year old, even if she could speak. Two,  _he_  knew what "boy parts" were for, and he wasn't comfortable letting his infant daughter see them.  
   She didn't ask questions, which he was grateful for. She scrubbed his skin thoroughly, adding a bit of massage to his shoulders, then handed him the soap back.  
   "Anything else before I go?" she asked.  
   He looked over his shoulder at her, attempting Dad Face. "Thanks, but no. I'll be fine, really."  
   "Grownup stuff?"  
   "Yup. I've got to rinse off now," he said pointedly.   
   His voice was much kinder than her mother's would have been, which she appreciated. She nodded and flapped away. He had to help her with the sliding door, but she got out of the bathroom on her own, which she was very proud of. True, she had to dry her hands after the first attempt, and the doorknob, but she did it all by herself!  
   Avi shook his head, a small smile playing about his lips. He'd probably still have to dry the doorknob when he was done, but it was nice that she cared.  
    _I'll have eight more kids to take care of soon,_  he remembered, and the smile disappeared into a frown of worry.


	33. Shower Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where else would you find privacy on a tour bus?

The children got better at tuning out loud music, focusing on their other senses. For some, like Blue and Red, it was a survival mechanism. They weren't overly fond of the cacophony, as Bubbles was. To an extent, they had to be okay around it because they were meant to protect members of a band that toured the world. Some would have to be more tolerant than others, depending on their activities outside of tour.  
   For that reason, their parents got the sinking feeling that they would have to assign Bubbles to one of Superfruit. Not only did she do well in loud places, she thrived on the excitement. The other four merely tolerated it.  
   Angel wanted to discuss it with her Bonded, but the other four bandmates didn't often all go out at the same time. The only way they could talk in private was the shower, and the embryos were getting too large to shrink past Olaf size. If they were going to talk about it, it had to be soon.  
   In Vancouver, when it didn't seem like the others would all be gone, she joined him in the shower. It wasn't unusual, but it wasn't the norm, either. He was only mildly surprised when she stepped in behind him.  
   She erected a Bubble of Silence, which none of her children had mastered. She let the water strike it, to retain the illusion outside the room. She always made a gesture when she put up a Bubble, to give him a visual cue that it was safe to speak freely.  
   "I was going to assign Whiskers to Kevin, but I think he may do better with Mitch," she said without preamble.  
   He ducked under the water for a momentary reprieve. He knew that no one would like the arrangement, but if they were going to leave Bubbles with the boys, it was in their best interest.  
   "Does he work well with Bubbles?" he asked. His reluctance colored the words more surely than his dragon eyes would.  
   "He has almost as much patience with her as Blue does. Do we pair them on a preliminary basis, before we fly overseas?" she asked.  
   Avi swiped water from his face. "Just out of curiosity, why do you ever consult me about this stuff? I mean, aren't tactics your thing?"  
   She didn't take umbrage at his tone. She'd learned to ignore undertones, and address the spoken word. It made her less irritated or frustrated.  
   "Because human interaction is  _your_  thing. They seem to dislike Whiskers, simply because he is down-to-earth. I ask which of them is more likely to listen to his wisdom.   
   "I suggested Bubbles for Scott because he seems to be more emotion-driven, and slightly less hyper. Whiskers can only do so much to curb her enthusiasm, and those boys aren't always together. Is he more likely to be able to handle her alone?  
   "However, we must take into account the otherworldly aspect that you've guessed about Mitch. Does it make him more or less vulnerable? Even I cannot say."  
   Having said her piece, she took up the soap and made a twirling motion with her foreclaw. She allowed him to think on her words while she washed his back. He took the opportunity to wash her back and wings, since she wasn't in the shower as often as he was. It gave him more time to think, but he hadn't reached any concrete decision, either.  
   He was soaping his chest when he finally concluded that a test run couldn't hurt. "I mean, if they don't work out, it's best to know before we go flying over the ocean, y'know? And we need them as settled as possible before then, since they can't all teleport outside the plane for a break. Who else is getting a trial run?"  
   She ticked them off on her claws. "We've already seen that your sister can handle Red. I was thinking Blue for Kirstie, and Green for Kevin, though those two could go either way."  
   He thought about it while he washed his hair. "We'll have to watch Blue, though. She can be a bit of a matchmaker."  
   Angel snorted. "So can Green. Those two keep trying to get us to do something called a 'date night'. They seem to think it will magically fix everything."  
    _I really shouldn't have serious conversations while I'm washing my hair,_  he grumbled to himself.  _I always wind up getting shampoo in my eyes..._  
   "Well, Blue seems a bit more in touch with her feelings, so that's a natural fit with Kirstie. Plus Kevin's more used to dragons, so it doesn't matter much what they look like. We may as well let Kirstie have the cutest of the kids. With those big ears, she almost looks like a fox, or Olaf.  
   "Speaking of which, do we know how well the kids get along with pets?"  
   Angel was torn between laughing and scowling. "You make the hatchlings sound like pets, with your talk of 'giving' them to people, and their relative cuteness."  
   He snorted water out of his nose, avoiding hitting his dragon by habit. He made a face, wrinkled his nose like a grumpy old man. "It's not on purpose. I just can't think of 'assigning' them to people, like... I dunno, Secret Service agents, or..."  
   "Bodyguards?" she asked, one brow ridge arched. "Because that's what they are. It is what I am, though they all seem to have other notions. Perhaps being assigned to a human, even on a trial basis, will teach them what our purpose is. At the moment, they are free to wander when they aren't on official assignments. I think they will begin their preliminary bonding tonight, when the band returns. It is too early to allow anyone to name their dragons, I think. Do you concur?"  
   He turned off the water and nodded, sending droplets across her frill and horns. "I'm pretty sure Esther can go ahead and name Red, but I don't know how that would affect the others. They might think we're playing favorites, or start pestering the person they're paired with for a name. We'll have to make sure they know that they aren't Bonded yet."  
   Angel handed him a towel. "As you wish." She agreed with his assessment. She didn't understand why her words made him flinch, and she didn't try to. She simply dried what she could, and waited for her Bonded to work through whatever reaction her statement triggered.


	34. Preliminaries

When the band was all on the bus, and headed toward Santa Barbara, they let everyone know what they'd decided.  
   "Keep in mind, this is preliminary, and subject to change. Mitchell, stop frowning. Whiskers is only looking out for your well-being."  
   "You can have Bubbles, if you like," Scott offered.  
   " _Hey!_  If you don't want me, just  _say_  so! You don't have to go  _giving me away,_ " Bubbles squealed.  
   Scott immediately snatched her up into a hug. "I'm sorry Bubbles, I didn't mean that the way it sounded. I'm sure everyone would  _love_  to have you with them."  
   "He's afraid of hurting Mitch's feelings," Whiskers told his sister. "It's nothing personal, I'm sure. Just like it's not a personal attack that no one wants me." It was the closest any of them had seen him get to tears.  
   "Hey, speak for yourself, dude. I don't have a problem with you." Kevin didn't have a problem with any of the hatchlings.  
   "They just wanted someone who can handle Bubbles,  _and_  their Bonded. It's an honor, don't you see?" This was from Green, who was more practical than her sisters.  
   Whiskers grumbled about being a glorified babysitter, but he was slightly mollified. Bubbles was miffed that anyone thought she needed "handling".  
   Red settled into his aunt's lap with little interest in the proceedings. She'd earned his respect, so he wasn't displeased with his assignment. In fact, he hoped it would become permanent.  
   Green didn't mind hers, nor did Blue, but both worried about the other two green hatchlings. They were the mother hens of the clutch, though their approaches differed slightly. Green was more grounded than anyone except Whiskers. Blue was the supportive optimist, Green the realist. Both cared for others, though Blue's caring extended to more species than Green.  
   All in all, as predicted, the only sticking point was Bubbles and Whiskers. Mitch was pouting, so Whiskers sat next to him like a guard dog. Scott was trying not to look too happy about getting Bubbles. As for the contested hatchling, she wasn't sure how to feel. She wanted to be with Scott and Mitch, and she didn't care who she was paired with. She enjoyed their energy together. Sure, she knew that they weren't always in the same place at the same time, but it hadn't sunk in yet.  
   When they went to bed, the wyrmlings climbed into their respective beds with more seriousness than usual. Mitch was sassier than usual, as well.  
  Blue hesitated, looking back toward the equipment trailer where Moonling could be freaking out while she was stuck inside.   
  "I will look in on her throughout the night," her mother assured her. "After all, she is my fosterling."  
   "But Mama, you don't  _fit_  in there anymore!" Wide green eyes sparkled dangerously up at her.  
   "I can See if she is in distress. If she is, I promise that I will send for you."  
   Blue opened her mouth to press the issue, but her mother couldn't lie. If she said she'd wake her, then she would. She nodded, raised her paws up to Kirstie to be picked up.  
   "You'll have to practice flying in tight corners someday," Angel chided.  
    _:Yes, but the first official night, I think she should feel like I need her.:  
_ Angel sent her a warm mental hug of approval.  _:The first official_ trial  _night, yes. Use your size to your advantage, then. I still want you to practice maneuvering, though. Involve her in it, if you like. Make it a game.:  
   _ Blue giggled in her head, already getting drowsy.  _:You make her sound like a puppy.:  
_    Angel shook her head, curled in the doorway of the sleeping area.  _The pet analogies continue, it would seem._ She shifted on the hard floor, already missing the soft mattress. She no longer fit in the bunk, with the baby sharing it as well. If Menolly would suffer the crib at night, she could have continued to share the bunk for a while longer.  
   A sigh rustled the particles on the carpet. She was a Bonded Celestial Dragon. She would guard her human, and his friends, from any threats; even if it meant being uncomfortable. She could, and did, go into sentry mode from the bunk on occasion, to spare her joints. She would not complain about the nighttime sleeping arrangement, for the discomfort kept her sharp.  
    _I would still fit in there with them, if I didn't have to make more soldiers,_  she thought with uncharacteristic bitterness. She idly wondered if the human version of her would have enjoyed the process. It wasn't especially uncomfortable, aside from the hard floor of her current position. There was no change in her center of balance yet, nor her gait. She had no odd cravings, no digestive discomfort.  
   But that would soon change, she knew. She would grow large and sluggish, and depend on her children to protect her, when the time came to lay eggs. The flight across the ocean would be more difficult, the second time.   
   She was not afraid, as her human shell would likely have been. She would do it, because it was required of her. She might not like it, but she wouldn't complain, because that wouldn't change anything. Besides, she wasn't ordered to do this. She merely saw a need, and filled it. In the end, it would make their lives easier.  
    _To be precise, it will make my children's lives easier,_  she amended.  _I am the one who will have to train this new clutch, which will take significantly longer on Earth than it did in Heaven. Juggling fourteen children, one of whom cannot walk, and my responsibilities as a Guardian will not be an easy task.  
__But I will do it, because I must._  It was becoming her personal mantra, though she hadn't noticed.

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